On December 17, 2019, CfA sent a letter to the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), Alex Azar, and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Population Affairs, Dr. Diane Foley, asking HHS to end Title X funding for The Obria Group, Inc., and its affiliated Obria Medical Clinics of Southern California (collectively Obria), an anti-choice religious ministry masquerading as a healthcare group.
On December 16, 2019, CfA filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) seeking an investigation into Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Iowa Values, a dark money organization set up to support Sen. Ernst’s reelection campaign.
On December 5, 2019, CfA released the Themis Project’s Government Records Archive, containing more than 7,000 government documents consisting of tens of thousands of pages about anti-abortion advocacy organizations, crisis pregnancy centers, and government efforts to curtail reproductive rights.
On November 22, 2019, CfA filed a motion in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia seeking to dismiss a frivolous and nonsensical lawsuit filed against CfA by Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA).
On November 21, 2019, CfA released new documents shedding light on how officials at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services intervened to secure federal family planning funds, known as Title X funding, for Obria, an anti-abortion and anti-birth control group based in California.
On November 21, 2019, CfA asked the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on the Constitution, to refer Karan Bhatia, Vice President for Government Affairs & Public Policy at Google, to the U.S. Department of Justice for investigation into whether Mr. Bhatia may have provided false testimony to the committee during a hearing concerning Google’s manipulation of search results.
On November 18, 2019, CfA published court documents revealing that Americans United for Life (AUL), a 48-year old national anti-abortion organization, advised the controversial anti-choice front group Center for Medical Progress (CMP) in its release of deceptively edited videos designed to harm Planned Parenthood. According to documents filed in a lawsuit against CMP, AUL provided extensive support to CMP during its deceitful scheme including 300 communications with CMP’s head, David Daleiden.
On November 12, 2019, CfA and Western Values Project, a Montana-based nonprofit conservation group, submitted additional evidence to ethics officials at the U.S. Department of the Interior and the Office of Government Ethics showing U.S. Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt continued to work with his former lobbying client, Westlands Water District, through at least July 2017, which is longer than was previously known.
On November 5, 2019, CfA sent letters to Estée Lauder informing the company of an employee’s inappropriate use of the company’s name in her role as the board chair of Obria Medical Clinics of Southern California, an anti-choice religious ministry masquerading as a healthcare group, and requesting that the company discipline the employee accordingly.
On November 4, 2019, CfA called on the Florida Commission on Ethics to investigate whether Florida State Representative David Scott Plakon violated the Florida Constitution and state ethics laws by failing to properly disclose information about his myriad business interests on his personal financial disclosure forms.