Produced and edited by Nico Pitney and Nes Sanchez
Written by Judd Legum, Popular Information
If you’ve spent money on Match, Tinder, OK Cupid and other popular dating sites, some of that cash was funneled into the campaign to eliminate abortion rights nationwide. Here is exactly how that happens:
Match Group, which owns Tinder and other leading dating sites, donated $137,000 to the Republican Attorneys General Association, known as RAGA. This money came directly from Match Group’s corporate treasury.
RAGA, in turn, played a central role in the Supreme Court case that just invalidated the constitutional right to an abortion. A member of RAGA, Mississippi’s Republican Attorney General Lynn Fitch, was in charge of the legal strategy behind Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, the case that the Supreme Court used to overturn Roe v. Wade, which was the law of the land for almost 50 years.
Even though the company was quietly funding RAGA, in public Match announced that it would help pay for its own employees to access out-of-state abortions. After Texas banned most abortions last year, Match’s CEO Shar Dubey sent employees a note saying “this particular law is so regressive to the cause of women’s rights that I felt compelled to speak publicly about my personal views.”
She added, “I also wanted to let you know that I am setting up a fund to ensure that if any of our Texas-based employees or a dependent find themselves impacted by this legislation and need to seek care outside of Texas, the fund will help cover the additional costs incurred.” The announcement received a write-up in the New York Times and other positive press coverage. Match’s support for RAGA stayed under the radar.
Now, with Roe overturned, RAGA is using money from Match and other donors to further undermine abortion rights across the country.
Republican Attorneys General are already working to restrict access to abortion pills and prosecute people who assist women in obtaining abortions.
RAGA is also spending to defeat Attorneys General who support abortion rights. It’s already reserved $682,000 in TV ad time to try to oust Wisconsin’s Attorney General Josh Kaul.
Wisconsin has an 1849 law on the books banning abortion, but Kaul says he won’t enforce it. RAGA is trying to replace Kaul with candidate Eric Toney, who has pledged to enforce the abortion ban if elected. The result could be a ban on abortion in Wisconsin without any legislative action.
RAGA is also raising funds to defeat pro-choice Attorneys General in Michigan and Arizona. Now it’s worth noting that, unlike Match, the vast majority of U.S. corporations aren’t offering any support for their employees to receive out-of-state reproductive health care. But among the few that are, Match’s corporate hypocrisy is not unique.
Other corporations that say they’ll cover employee travel for abortion but have donated to RAGA since 2021 include AT&T ($125,000), Bank of America ($25,000), Cigna ($67,000), Comcast ($216,000), JPMorgan ($25,000), Mastercard ($25,000), T-Mobile ($100,000), and Uber ($50,000).
I’ve since reached out to Match and all of these companies to find out if they plan to stop donating to RAGA, or even request a refund. Not one has responded to a request for comment.
