In this issue of The Weekly Reveal:

• How conservative legal groups are using pre-Roe v. Wade laws to go after abortion funders.

• How proponents of Donald Trump’s Big Lie have “been able to infiltrate the Republican Party right down to the precinct level” in Michigan.

• Why only 1% of farm families are Black.

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New: Mastermind of the Texas ‘Heartbeat’ Statute Has a Radical Mission to Reshape American Law

Jonathan Mitchell may not be a name that rings a bell. But it’s likely you’ve heard how the Texas Heartbeat Act, which bans abortions at about six weeks of pregnancy, also gives private citizens the right to sue anyone who “aids or abets” an abortion. Mitchell is the man behind that statute.

He has another radical legal theory: that old laws never really die, even when they’re struck down by courts.

• Impatient to halt as many abortions as possible, Mitchell and his allies are now using this theory to argue that Texas statutes from the 1850s criminalizing abortion were never actually repealed and thus are still in force. These laws made it a crime to help someone get an abortion in the state and were overturned by Roe v. Wade in 1973.

• They claim that grassroots abortion funds, which raise money to help Texas patients pay for the procedure, are breaking those old laws and should be prosecuted.

• Ordinary citizens who’ve donated to abortion funds would also be in trouble.

Mitchell’s ideas could have vast repercussions for more than reproductive rights, legal experts warn. The notion that old laws don’t go away and can be resuscitated is “awfully curious in a country where old law legalized segregation, slavery, sexual abuse and rape of wives,” said Michele Goodwin, a legal scholar at the University of California, Irvine.

📄 Read the full story by Amy Littlefield.

New: Inside the GOP’s Purge of Local Election Officials in Michigan

Across the nation, many Republicans are campaigning on the lie that the 2020 election was stolen and pushing to change the way elections are run in the future.

In Michigan, proponents of Donald Trump’s Big Lie have “been able to infiltrate the Republican Party right down to the precinct level in a way that I’ve been astounded by,” says a former head of the state GOP.

One way they have been able to do that is by purging Republican officials who did not go along with Trump’s plan to stop the certification across the country – like Monica Palmer, a former member of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers. 

Joe Biden needed to win Wayne County, where Detroit is located, in order to take Michigan.

Months after the 2020 election, Palmer told a local GOP committee that she did not want to certify the election but that, legally, she had no choice.

“The only thing that the Board of Canvassers has the authority to do is to compare the statement of voters, the number of ballots that were received versus the number of ballots that were tallied and to make any mathematical corrections,” she said.

David Dudenhoefer, leader of the committee, wasn’t satisfied with that explanation. He told Reveal that he helped oust Palmer because she was “willing to compromise (her) beliefs, (her) principles and (her) standards.” She was replaced by a man who says he would not have certified the election.

Palmer declined to go on the record for this story. In the weeks after the election, she received death threats and text messages with photos of dead naked women. Some of the threats mentioned her daughter. 

As for Dudenhoefer, he scoffed at the idea that Republicans are threatening democracy by refusing to accept the results of the election. Or that democracy is even what the country should strive for.

“If we got 300 million Americans and the majority of them decided to make cannibalization legal, and now we can just start eating each other,” he said. “I mean, does that make it right?”

📄 Read the full story by Trey Bundy.

🎧 You can also hear this story on Reveal. Listen online or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

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This Week on Reveal: Why Only 1% of Farm Families are Black

In 1997, a U.S. Department of Agriculture report said discrimination by the agency was a factor in the decline of Black farms. A landmark class-action lawsuit on behalf of Black farmers, Pigford v. Glickman, was settled in 1999, but advocates for Black farmers say problems persist.

This week on Reveal, we bring you the story of Eddie Wise, a farmer who says the agency discriminated against him and his wife over a span of 25 years because of their race, and ultimately, drove them off their land.

🎧 Listen online or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

More From Us

🏆 ‘Mississippi Goddam: The Ballad of Billey Joe’ Wins IRE Award: The radio investigation has tied for top honors from Investigative Reporters & Editors for audio in the large newsrooms category. 

🎧 Después de Ayotzinapa: The final two episodes of Adonde Media’s Spanish-language adaptation of our After Ayotzinapa series are now out.

🎧 ‘To Shoot and Fight for My Home’: Voices from the front lines in Ukraine, where the Russian invasion has forced millions to flee.

📄 Private Report Shows How Amazon Drastically Undercounts Its Carbon Footprint: The company has marketed itself as a climate change leader, but a report obtained by Reveal highlights the pitfalls of relying on voluntary commitments.

Final Words: ‘We’re Not Treated Like People. We’re Numbers.’