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Catholic Church spending big on anti-abortion constitutional amendment in Kansas
From Popular Information:
The Catholic Church gave over $750,000 to anti-abortion campaign in Kansas
One of the largest donors to anti-abortion groups campaigning for the amendment is the Catholic Church. Recent filings show that Catholic dioceses gave at least $750,000 to the Value Them Both Coalition in 2021. The coalition, which includes anti-abortion groups Kansas Family Voice, Kansans for Life, and the Kansas Catholic Conference, is campaigning across Kansas.
The filings show that of the $1.2 million that the coalition raised in 2021, $500,000 was donated from the Archdiocese of Kansas City and $250,000 was donated from the Catholic Diocese of Wichita. Documents covering 2022 donations will not be filed until later this month.
Churches are normally prohibited from engaging in political campaign activity due to their tax-exempt status. The prohibition, however, only applies to campaigns involving “candidate[s] for elective public office.” The IRS considers ballot initiatives a “legislative activity” and churches are allowed to spend money to influence the result. In this case, it means that tax-exempt funds are being used to add an anti-abortion amendment to the state constitution.
An analysis by the Kansas City Star found that “[l]ess than 4% of donations [to the PAC] came from individual Kansans.”
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