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Political Party/527

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America

Website:

www.sba-list.org
Location:

Arlington, VA
Tax ID:

54-1850126
Tax-Exempt Status:

501(c)(4)

Budget (2020):

Revenue: $21,262,529
Expenses: $15,904,180
Assets: $8,106,758
Type:

Pro-life PAC
Founded:

1992

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Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America is a PAC and activist group that supports pro-life candidates and legislation. Established in 1992, it was formerly known as the Susan B. Anthony List. 1

The organization is named for women’s suffragette Susan B. Anthony. 2 Initially, the group only endorsed and raised money for pro-life women candidates, but it has since modified its policies to support pro-life male candidates. 3 SBA Pro-Life American publishes the National Pro-Life Scorecard that scores members of Congress on votes, bill sponsorship and other matters related to abortion. 4

Background

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America is a public advocacy group that supports pro-life political candidates for public office and advocates for pro-life legislation in Congress and state legislatures. It was established in 1992 and was known as the Susan B. Anthony List for 30 years. 5 SBA Pro-Life America grew to a nationwide network of more than 900,000 Americans. 6

Also known as the Susan B. Anthony List, the organization is named for 19th-century women’s suffrage campaigner Susan B. Anthony. 7 Anthony’s newspaper Revolution refused to take advertisements from “Foeticides and Infanticides” and published articles condemning abortion and men who drove women to seek abortions. 8

The organization publishes the National Pro-Life Scorecard that scores members of Congress on votes, bill sponsorship and other matters related to abortion. 9

History

Rachel MacNair, Marjorie Dannenfelser, and Jane Abraham founded Susan B. Anthony List in 1992. This was in part a response to EMILY’s List, which endorses and fundraises for pro-abortion-access female politicians, receiving considerable credit from the left-of-center media for helping make 1992 the so-called “Year of the Woman” after numerous pro-abortion-access women were elected to Congress. MacNair, Dannenfelser wanted to help pro-life women get elected in the same way. 10

Dannenfelser, previously the staff director of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus, became president. 11 Abraham became chairwoman of the board for the SBA List, while MacNair later left the group. 12

In the mid-1990s, the SBA List began endorsing male pro-life candidates as well. 13 The organization will support a female candidate opposed to abortion or a male candidate opposed to abortion running against a female candidate who supports abortion, who has completed the group’s questionnaire, is a viable candidate, has interviewed with the organization, and been approved by the group’s candidate selection committee. 14

In the group’s first round of endorsements in 1994, it backed a mix of pro-life Republican and Democrat candidates for Congress. By 2010, the organization opposed numerous ostensibly pro-life Democrats over their vote for the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare. 15

MacNair, a liberal pro-life activist who was previously the president of Feminists for Life, said in 2012 that she was embarrassed that the organization became partisan, and complained Republicans and political operatives hijacked an organization intended to elect more pro-life women from both parties. 16

A New York magazine profile on Dannenfelser called her “the woman who killed Roe.” 17

Advocacy

The Susan B. Anthony List’s top legislative priorities include prohibiting abortions of unborn children believed to be capable of feeling pain; prohibiting taxpayer funding of abortion, particularly through Obamacare; ending taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood; and passing laws that protect freedom of conscience. 18

The Women Speak Out PAC, established in 2014, is a partner of SBA Pro-Life America. SBA Pro-Life America and Women Speak Out PAC established the 2021-2022 National Campaign for Life with the goals of winning pro-life majorities in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate and setting the stage for electing a pro-life president in 2024. The initiative focused on persuadable voters in eight states. 19

In January 2016, Dannenfelser signed a public letter with 10 other conservative and pro-life leaders urging Iowans to “support anyone but Donald Trump” in the Iowa caucuses. The letter asserted Trump cannot be trusted to have character to “defend both unborn children and the dignity of women.” 20 However, after Trump had a pro-life record as president, the SBA List endorsed him for re-election in 2020, and devoted $52 million to re-electing Trump and a pro-life Senate majority. 21

Rebrand

In June 2022, after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the SBA List announced it would rebrand as Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America. Rather than being the pro-life counterbalance to EMILY’s List, the name was meant to counter NARAL Pro-Choice America. 22

Post-Dobbs, the organization established Her Pregnancy and Life Assistance Network, or Her PLAN, an initiative to help pregnant women find the medical, social, and material support they need to choose to have their babies. The initiative compiles a database of resources for each state. The initiative began operating in Georgia, Mississippi, Virginia, and West Virginia, with the plan to expand to all 50 states. Also post-Dobbs, SBA expanded its state-affairs teams in 30 states to help legislators pass pro-life policies. 23

Name Dispute

In May 2022, after the leak of the Supreme Court’s draft decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the National Susan B. Anthony Museum and House president and CEO Deborah L. Hughes issued a statement condemning the Susan B. Anthony List for a “dangerous distortion” of Anthony’s legacy and a “misappropriation of her name.” Hughes said it is “abhorrent” to suggest Anthony would support legal restrictions of abortion. 24

In response, Colleen Kelly Spellecy and Eric Anthony, board members of the separate Susan B. Anthony Birthplace Museum in Adams, Mass., wrote in the Wall Street Journal that both Susan B. Anthony and early feminist Elizabeth Cady Stanton opposed abortion, calling it “foeticide.” The two noted that abortion was “reviled and rebuked in more than 100 editorials, letters to the editor and articles” in the pair’s newspaper, which regularly called abortion “infanticide” and “child murder.” 25

References

  1. DeSanctis, Alexandra. “Pro-Life Susan B. Anthony List Rebrands and Begins Expansion.” National Review. June 1, 2022. Accessed December 23, 2022. https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/06/exclusive-pro-life-susan-b-anthony-list-rebrands-and-begins-expansion/
  2. DeSanctis, Alexandra. “Pro-Life Susan B. Anthony List Rebrands and Begins Expansion.” National Review. June 1, 2022. Accessed December 23, 2022. https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/06/exclusive-pro-life-susan-b-anthony-list-rebrands-and-begins-expansion/
  3. Sheppard, Kate. “Susan B. Anthony List Founder: Republicans Hijacked My PAC!” Mother Jones. February 22, 2012. Accessed December 23, 2022. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/susan-b-anthony-list-sharp-right-turn-rachel-macnair/
  4. “Susan B. Anthony List.” Ballotpedia. Accessed December 23, 2022. https://ballotpedia.org/Susan_B._Anthony_List
  5. DeSanctis, Alexandra. “Pro-Life Susan B. Anthony List Rebrands and Begins Expansion.” National Review. June 1, 2022. Accessed December 23, 2022. https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/06/exclusive-pro-life-susan-b-anthony-list-rebrands-and-begins-expansion/
  6. “About Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.”  Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America. Accessed December 23, 2022. https://sbaprolife.org/about
  7. DeSanctis, Alexandra. “Pro-Life Susan B. Anthony List Rebrands and Begins Expansion.” National Review. June 1, 2022. Accessed December 23, 2022. https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/06/exclusive-pro-life-susan-b-anthony-list-rebrands-and-begins-expansion/
  8. Foster, Serrin M. “The Feminist Case against Abortion: The pro-Life Roots of the Women’s Movement.” America Magazine, January 7, 2015. https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2015/01/07/feminist-case-against-abortion-pro-life-roots-womens-movement.
  9. “Susan B. Anthony List.” Ballotpedia. Accessed December 23, 2022. https://ballotpedia.org/Susan_B._Anthony_List
  10.  “Susan B. Anthony List.” Library of Congress. Accessed December 23, 2022. https://www.loc.gov/item/lcwaN0007536/
  11. Sheppard, Kate. “Susan B. Anthony List Founder: Republicans Hijacked My PAC!” Mother Jones. February 22, 2012. Accessed December 23, 2022. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/susan-b-anthony-list-sharp-right-turn-rachel-macnair/
  12. “Susan B. Anthony List.” Library of Congress. Accessed December 23, 2022. https://www.loc.gov/item/lcwaN0007536/
  13. Sheppard, Kate. “Susan B. Anthony List Founder: Republicans Hijacked My PAC!” Mother Jones. February 22, 2012. Accessed December 23, 2022. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/susan-b-anthony-list-sharp-right-turn-rachel-macnair/
  14. “Susan B. Anthony List.” Ballotpedia. Accessed December 23, 2022. https://ballotpedia.org/Susan_B._Anthony_List
  15.  Sheppard, Kate. “Susan B. Anthony List Founder: Republicans Hijacked My PAC!” Mother Jones. February 22, 2012. Accessed December 23, 2022. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/susan-b-anthony-list-sharp-right-turn-rachel-macnair/
  16. Sheppard, Kate. “Susan B. Anthony List Founder: Republicans Hijacked My PAC!” Mother Jones. February 22, 2012. Accessed December 23, 2022. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/susan-b-anthony-list-sharp-right-turn-rachel-macnair/
  17.  DeSanctis, Alexandra. “Pro-Life Susan B. Anthony List Rebrands and Begins Expansion.” National Review. June 1, 2022. Accessed December 23, 2022. https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/06/exclusive-pro-life-susan-b-anthony-list-rebrands-and-begins-expansion/
  18. “Susan B. Anthony List.” Cause IQ. Accessed December 23, 2022. https://www.causeiq.com/organizations/susan-b-anthony-list,541850126/
  19. “Women Speak Out PAC.” SBA Pro-Life America. Accessed December 23, 2022. https://sbaprolife.org/women-speak-out-pac
  20. Johnson, Jenna. “Antiabortion activists to Iowa voters: ‘Support anyone but Donald Trump.’” Washington Post. January 26, 2016. Accessed December 23, 2022. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/01/26/antiabortion-activists-to-iowa-voters-support-anyone-but-donald-trump/?noredirect=on
  21. Kelly, Caroline. “Anti-abortion group announces $52 million budget to reelect Trump and anti-abortion Senate majority.” CNN. January 17, 2020. Accessed December 23, 2022. https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/17/politics/anti-abortion-sba-list-52-million-2020-budget/index.html
  22. DeSanctis, Alexandra. “Pro-Life Susan B. Anthony List Rebrands and Begins Expansion.” National Review. June 1, 2022. Accessed December 23, 2022. https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/06/exclusive-pro-life-susan-b-anthony-list-rebrands-and-begins-expansion/
  23. DeSanctis, Alexandra. “Pro-Life Susan B. Anthony List Rebrands and Begins Expansion.” National Review. June 1, 2022. Accessed December 23, 2022. https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/06/exclusive-pro-life-susan-b-anthony-list-rebrands-and-begins-expansion/
  24. Hughes, Deborah L. “Susan B. Anthony vs. The List.” National Susan B. Anthony Museum and House. May 11, 2022. Accessed December 23, 2022. https://susanb.org/susan-b-anthony-vs-the-list/
  25. Spellecy, Colleen Kelly and Anthony, Eric. “Yes, Susan B. Anthony Was Pro-Life.” Wall Street Journal. June 13, 2022. Accessed December 23, 2022. https://www.wsj.com/articles/susan-b-anthony-was-pro-life-elizabeth-cady-stanton-roe-abortion-dobbs-decision-11655151459
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Nonprofit Information

  • Accounting Period: December - November
  • Tax Exemption Received: July 1, 2001

    • Available Filings

    Period Form Type Total revenue Total functional expenses Total assets (EOY) Total liabilities (EOY) Unrelated business income? Total contributions Program service revenue Investment income Comp. of current officers, directors, etc. Form 990
    2020 Dec Form 990 $21,262,529 $15,904,180 $8,106,758 $958,357 N $20,154,011 $856,840 $2,975 $926,508
    2019 Dec Form 990 $11,005,738 $10,472,193 $3,403,251 $1,613,199 N $10,481,133 $444,080 $18,769 $799,645 PDF
    2018 Dec Form 990 $12,862,821 $12,378,646 $2,981,537 $1,725,030 Y $12,006,326 $442,600 $10,875 $550,021 PDF
    2017 Dec Form 990 $7,844,212 $8,723,023 $2,193,743 $1,085,829 N $7,185,528 $646,100 $5,112 $465,001 PDF
    2016 Dec Form 990 $10,033,882 $8,114,611 $2,639,009 $652,284 N $8,664,615 $390,560 $1,313 $422,851
    2015 Dec Form 990 $5,763,929 $6,124,741 $529,439 $461,686 N $5,563,960 $241,140 $1,210 $384,019 PDF
    2014 Dec Form 990 $8,110,249 $7,688,369 $931,295 $502,730 N $8,095,900 $71,730 $913 $382,001 PDF
    2013 Dec Form 990 $4,007,080 $3,903,209 $822,240 $805,652 N $4,134,096 $0 $76 $530,190 PDF
    2012 Dec Form 990 $5,599,676 $5,736,973 $338,582 $435,768 N $5,740,480 $0 $94 $540,340 PDF
    2011 Dec Form 990 $3,733,506 $3,531,134 $486,128 $446,017 N $3,738,891 $0 $3 $298,324 PDF

    Additional Filings (PDFs)

    Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America


    Arlington, VA