Wannabe Gov Michels funds location tracking of abortion seekers

New ad slams Wisconsin Republican for funding location tracking of abortion seekers
Sep 09, 2022 7:00am Central Daylight Time by Daily Kos Elections, Daily Kos Staff

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported last week that Republican Tim Michels and his wife have donated $250,000 since 2020 to anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ groups, including two that use location tracking to dissuade people from having abortions, and Democrats are highlighting these revelations in a new commercial. "They call it an ankle bracelet," opens the narrator for a DGA affiliate called Alliance for Common Sense, "It's a way for police to track dangerous criminals."

She continues, "Tim Michels has the same idea, only his is about tracking women. Michels' family foundation funded an organization that tracks women when they get near abortion clinics using data from their cell phone." The narrator adds, "Which means Michels doesn't just want to criminalize abortion even in cases of rape or incest—he wants to treat women like they're the criminals."

As the Wisconsin Examiner recently explained, Michels' family foundation, which he runs along with his wife, contributed $20,000 to the Veritas Society. The group's website reads, "Utilizing our advanced Veritas Society digital technology, otherwise known as 'Polygonning' we identify and capture the cell phone ID's of women that are coming and going from Planned Parenthood and similar locations. We then reach these women on apps, social feeds and websites like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat with pro-life content and messaging."

The Veritas Society was far from the only hard-right recipient of Michels' money, though. The Journal Sentinel reported that Michels' foundation donated $50,000 to a Wisconsin church whose pastor said it was "awful" for trans children to use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity. Another $10,000 went to Christ Fellowship, a Miami mega church whose long history of anti-LGBTQ rhetotic surfaced in 2015 when one of its parishioners, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, launched his failed presidential bid.

More at

https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2022/9/9/2121692/-Morning-Digest-New-ad-slams-Wisconsin-Republican-for-funding-location-tracking-of-abortion-seekers