Logo for InfluenceWatch InfluenceWatch

Donate
Other Group

#VOTEPROCHOICE

Website:

voteprochoice.us
Type:

Abortion Advocacy Group
Formation:

2016
Founders:

Heidi Sieck

Bob Fertik

Contact InfluenceWatch with suggested edits or tips for additional profiles.

Vote Pro-Choice (#VOTEPROCHOICE) is a political advocacy group that endorses and campaigns at the local and national level for candidates who support abortion. The group expanded its name recognition when it partnered with the 2017 Women’s March. The group has partnered with other pro-abortion organizations and the news outlet Democrats.com.

People

Bob Fertik and Heidi Sieck founded Vote Pro-Choice in 2016. 1 Sieck is the founding director for CTZNWELL, an online community of left-wing activists who focus on spiritual support to sustain their activism.2 She also serves on the Board of Directors of the National Institute for Reproductive Health, a pro-abortion-rights nonprofit organization. Fertik, a long-time political activist on the left, serves as the president of Democrats.com, and Sieck serves as its Chief Operations Officer.3 Democrats.com describes itself as “the oldest and largest online community of Democratic Party and progressive activists.”4 Fertic and Sieck founded Vote Pro-Choice as a project of the news site.5

Pro-Abortion Activism

Vote Pro-Choice sells underwear with which it encourages viewers by its logo on the back to “#voteprochoice.”6 It also provides support to pro-abortion political campaigns through on-the-ground canvassing and phone banking.7

In an email before the 2016 presidential election, the group touted more than 10,000 endorsements it had made. It urged its subscribers to “vote in record numbers to defeat Trump and elect Hillary Clinton” as the country’s first female president. It also encouraged them to defeat all the “little Trumps” by for voting pro-abortion candidates “up and down the ballot.”8

In August 2017, Vote Pro-Choice activists phone banked in New York City with The Broad Room, an organization that describes itself as “a training camp for young women to take political action and resist the right-wing agenda.”9 According to this organization, the collaboration came after the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee “chose big tent politics at the expense of women,” by refusing to make the pro-abortion position a “litmus test” for party endorsements.10

Vote Pro-Choice partnered with the 2017 Women’s March in protest of President Donald Trump’s election.11 Sieck was one of 18 named activists who prepared the March’s Guiding Vision and Definition of Principles.12 The March drew criticism when organizers excluded pro-life feminist groups from partnering with it.13

Vote Pro-Choice held three days of phone and text banking at the Women’s Convention held in October 2017 in Detroit.14 The Women’s March hosted the “costly” convention to train activists and teach “about the individual problems of sexism, racism, classism, ableism, transphobia, homophobia, biphobia, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, and xenophobia” and “how they intersect.”15 Vote Pro-Choice presented a session titled “ Repro Rights 101: How Your Uterus is Regulated by Pretty Much Everybody.”16

In early 2018, the group unveiled a new get-out-the-vote effort to elect 300 pro-abortion candidates throughout the country. The new effort’s guide urges voters to start a “ROEvolution,” a reference to the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision which mandated legal abortion at the national level throughout most of pregnancy.17

In 2022, following the overturning of Roe v. Wade, #VOTEPROCHOICE announced the “Care Is Not Criminal Emergency Fund,” which would be used to raise money in order to “…coach, support, and elect pro-choice officials. 18

Endorsements

2018 Midterm Elections

In 2018, Vote Pro-Choice endorsed Marie Newman, who challenged one of the last remaining pro-life Democratic U.S. Representatives, Dan Lipinski (D-Illinois). Sieck described Newman as the “one real Democrat” in the race.19 After the vicious campaign between conservative and liberal Democrats which drew national attention, Newman lost by 2.4 percent.20

Finances

According to Open Secrets, in 2022 the group received a $75,000 donation from federal 527 Political Action Committee (PAC) Planned Parenthood Votes. 21

References

  1. Sieck, Heidi L. “End Assault. End Sexism. End Patriarchy. – Heidi L. Sieck – Medium.” Medium. October 25, 2016. Accessed May 11, 2018. https://medium.com/@HeidiSpeaks/end-assault-end-sexism-end-patriarchy-3ea4ccd682a6.
  2. About Us. CTZNWELL. Accessed May 11, 2018. http://www.ctznwell.org/about-us-1#action.
  3. Bob Fertik. The Huffington Post. Accessed May 11, 2018. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/bob-fertik.
  4. About Democrats.com. Democrats.com. Accessed May 11, 2018. http://democrats.com/.
  5. Sieck, Heidi L. “End Assault. End Sexism. End Patriarchy. – Heidi L. Sieck – Medium.” Medium. October 25, 2016. Accessed May 11, 2018. https://medium.com/@HeidiSpeaks/end-assault-end-sexism-end-patriarchy-3ea4ccd682a6.
  6. Logo Women’s Boy Brief VOTEPROCHOICE. CafePress. Accessed May 11, 2018. https://www.cafepress.com/voteprochoice.1799693424.
  7. “Election 2017: U.S. Women Run Races Big and Small.” The Story Exchange. November 06, 2017. Accessed May 11, 2018. https://thestoryexchange.org/election-2017-women-run-races-big-small/.
  8. Google Groups. Accessed May 11, 2018. https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/slpolicywatch/qFF8uvrr4gI.
  9. About Us. The Broad Room. Accessed May 11, 2018. https://www.thebroadroomnyc.com/about/.
  10. #VOTEPROCHOICE Phone Bank with The Broad Room. The Broad Room. Accessed May 11, 2018. https://www.thebroadroomnyc.com/upcomingevents/2017/8/15/voteprochoice-phonebank-with-the-broad-room.
  11. Partners & Sponsors. Women’s March. Accessed May 11, 2018. https://www.womensmarch.com/partners/.
  12. Full Text of “Women’s March on Washington Guiding Vision and Definition of Principles.” The Internet Archive. Accessed May 12, 2018. https://archive.org/stream/WMWGuidingVisionDefinitionofPrinciples/WMW%2BGuiding%2BVision%2B%26%2BDefinition%2Bof%2BPrinciples_djvu.txt.
  13. DeSanctis, Alexandra. “Update: Women’s March Removes Pro-Life Sponsor.” National Review. October 10, 2017. Accessed May 11, 2018. https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/womens-march-pro-life-women-arent-feminists/. v
  14. Sieck, Heidi. “Election Day 2017— Winning like our lives depend on it. Because they do…” Medium. November 5, 2017. Accessed May 12, 2018. https://medium.com/@HeidiSpeaks/election-day-2017-winning-like-our-lives-depend-on-it-because-they-do-c6496264bcab.
  15. Shamus, Kristen Jordan. “Detroit’s Women’s Convention aims to ‘get real about fighting … oppression’.” USA Today. September 29, 2017. Accessed May 12, 2018. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/09/29/detroit-womens-convention/715657001/.
  16. Sieck, Heidi. “Election Day 2017— Winning like our lives depend on it. Because they do…” Medium. November 5, 2017. Accessed May 12, 2018. https://medium.com/@HeidiSpeaks/election-day-2017-winning-like-our-lives-depend-on-it-because-they-do-c6496264bcab.
  17. #VOTEPROCHOICE (@voteprochoice). Instagram. Accessed May 11, 2018. https://www.instagram.com/voteprochoice/?hl=en.
  18. “Care Is Not Criminal.” #VOTEPROCHOICE. Accessed October 28, 2022. https://www.voteprochoice.us/care-is-not-criminal.
  19. Endorsements. Marie Newman. Accessed May 11, 2018. https://www.marienewmanforcongress.com/endorsements/.
  20. Caygle, Heather and Elena Schneider. “Lipinski Win Stings Liberals.” Politico. March 21, 2018. Accessed May 11, 2018. https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/21/lipinski-illinois-democrats-liberals-479338.
  21. “Top Organizations Disclosing Donations to VoteProChoice PAC, 2022.” OpenSecrets, Accessed October 9, 2023. https://www.opensecrets.org/outside-spending/detail/2022?cmte=C00571117&tab=donors
  See an error? Let us know!