Wanted for funding the criminalization of Abortion: The Cook Family
This is the second in a series of WANTED posters, looking at individuals, families and organizations in West Michigan that have contributed significantly to the criminalization of abortion and the undermining of reproductive justice.
Peter Cook, now deceased, was the former President of Great Lakes Mazda in Grand Rapids, as well as being the former Director of Michigan National Bank. While Cook never reached the same level of wealth that his contemporary Rich DeVos did, Cook was a multi-millionaire.
Cook had a long history of being part of the far right, from the Council for National Policy to the anti-public education group TEACH Michigan, Gospel Films, Campus Crusade for Christ, the Mackinac Center, and the Acton Institute.
Then there are the groups that Cook contributed to that played a significant role in pushing an anti-abortion agenda, groups such as Michigan Family Forum, Focus on the Family, the Family Research Council, and Right to Life Michigan. His funding of these organizations eventually led to the US Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v Wade, thus criminalizing abortion.
Like the DeVos family, Peter Cook funded an anti-abortion agenda both through his foundation, the Peter and Emajean Cook Foundation and through his campaign contributions over the years to GOP candidates and incumbents.
We encourage you to share this poster and consider directing some of your rage at the recent US Supreme Court ruling to overturn Roe v Wade towards the Cook Family Foundation, since both Peter Cook and his wife are no longer living.
Sources used:
The Religious Right in Michigan Politics, by Russ Bellant, 1996.
Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy 
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