On Tuesday, April 21, the Department of Justice indicted the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a nonprofit that for more than 50 years has documented hate and political violence, taking on the Ku Klux Klan, systemic bigotry, and the rise of Christian nationalism. The move has drawn swift backlash from civil rights advocates, who warn it reflects a broader effort to target organizations that challenge the administration’s reinterpretation of civil rights history and accountability.
The Feminist Majority Foundation has released a statement in response to the indictment:
“The Feminist Majority Foundation condemns the indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center, an alarming escalation of the Trump DOJ’s efforts to target organizations that defend civil rights and expose extremist violence. For decades, the SPLC has documented hate groups, including playing a critical role in identifying antiabortion extremist networks such as the so-called Army of God, whose violence has targeted clinics, providers and patients. The fact that the same administration responsible for pardoning 23 extremists convicted of violently blockading abortion clinics would now seek to prosecute an organization helping to expose and prevent such violence should alarm everyone committed to the rule of law and public safety. This DOJ’s persecution of political enemies and civil rights bulwarks like the SPLC undermines the very foundation of our democracy. At a time of escalating attacks on reproductive freedom and rising threats against women and providers, efforts to intimidate civil rights organizations put lives at risk. The Feminist Majority Foundation stands with the SPLC and will continue to defend gender and racial equality, reproductive rights and the fundamental freedoms these attacks seek to erode.”