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Former Kansas Attorney General working with an anti-abortion law firm to dispute the 2020 election

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Phill Kline served four terms in the Kansas legislature before serving one term as the 41st attorney general of Kansas from 2003 to 2007.
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Phill Kline served four terms in the Kansas legislature before serving one term as the 41st attorney general of Kansas from 2003 to 2007.

A Chicago-based Catholic law firm called the Thomas More Society has spent decades focused on their main mission: outlawing all abortions. Part of their strategy also includes casting doubt on the integrity of U.S. elections. Former Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline, whose law license was suspended indefinitely by the Kansas Supreme Court in 2013, is among their strategists.

The law firm known as the Thomas More Society has been fighting for severe restrictions on abortions in the U.S. since the 1990s. But in recent years — with some help from former Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline — the law firm has also attempted to sow doubts about the integrity of American elections.

Megan O'Matz, who has been covering this story for Pro Publica, said the organization views it as advantageous to the anti-abortion cause to go after the elections themselves.

"They are, y'know, without any evidence, saying that Democrats will try to engineer the elections in their favor. So, they have made it very clear that they are tying the anti-abortion effort to elections."

She also said the Thomas More Society has been remarkably persistent in their approach to fighting abortion rights in states around the country, playing a long game to achieve their goal.

"They are going about really making somewhat of a nuisance of themselves, challenging every little bit of election law and election regulations throughout the key battleground states in particular," she explained. "Even if you lose in one court, you just try another court, you change the complaint a little bit, file it again. I mean, you see, a loss is not a loss. You are looking long term. And look what happened with Roe v. Wade, it was overturned."

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