On Tuesday, Brandon Wade, the founder of the Sugar Daddy dating site Seeking Arrangement, released a video titled, “Brandon Wade Offers to Pay For Abortions,” in which he offered to pay the freight for women who need to travel to another state to have an abortion.
Wade, who founded Seeking Arrangement in 2006, posited that the new Alabama law that banned abortion with the exception of cases where the mother’s life is in danger targeted the “weakest and the poorest amongst us.” He argued that Alabama is one of the poorest states in the nation and he castigated the state for what he called its ignoring of “funding essential to the success of pregnancy prevention resources like Planned Parenthood.” He claimed the new Alabama law is “designed to keep the poor, poor.”
Wade wrote in 2014:
Seeking Arrangement is a dating site, which means most of the men here are eventually hoping to have sex. Isn’t that the point of dating? But this is not prostitution. Regardless of whether a man has money or not, when two people are dating, sex will inevitably be a part of the equation. Feminists argue that sugaring reverts women to a submissive, “codependent” lifestyle. But the reality is, we are leveling the playing field.
He added, “Love is a concept invented by poor people.”
The transcript of Wade’s statement is below:
This year a number of states where Republicans are in power have taken extreme actions to restrict access to abortion amid a national debate over Roe versus Wade. Most recently Alabama passed the strictest abortion law in the country, banning abortion entirely with no exceptions for rape or incest. My girlfriend Zoe and her sister Camille, both from Gadsen, Alabama, wept that day, as did millions of other women worldwide.
Multiple states, including Kentucky, Georgia, and as of earlier this month, Mississippi, have passed abortions that ban abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected. That’s usually around six weeks of pregnancy.
Outraged when I first heard about Alabama’s new law, I asked Zoe, “Why couldn’t someone from Alabama simply travel top a neighboring state, where an abortion is legal, to get one?” I quickly learned that she was extremely passionate about this topic and that the answer may have more to do with money than legislation. Many simply cannot afford to do so, she said.
Alabama’s anti-abortion law is designed to hurt the weakest and the poorest amongst us. Alabama is one of the poorest states in the U.S. Almost 20% of Alabama’s residents live below the poverty line, which is higher than the national average of 14%, and 27% of children there, that’s 300,000 children, live in poverty. Yet Alabama’s law doesn’t require comprehensive sex education to be taught in their schools, and funding essential to the success of pregnancy prevention resources like Planned Parenthood continue to be ignored. This new law is a blatant attack on the weakest in our nation and it is designed to keep the poor, poor.
If lawmakers will not step in and help these desperate women, then I will. Although Alabama’s law has yet to take effect, I’m working proactively with Zoe to launch a charity, Fight Against Poverty, so that when any state makes the decision to deny women the right to make choices about her body, we can help. We will provide women and families who cannot afford to provide for themselves, travel out of their home state to access proper health care and to exercise their right to a choice.
Video below:
