This Ted Cruz T-Shirt Is Helping Fund Abortions

Profits from the shirt will support an abortion fund in Texas.

From Cosmopolitan

The 2016 election cycle has already seen its share of weird conspiracy theories, but the craziest one by far is that GOP presidential candidate and Texas senator Ted Cruz is the infamous Zodiac killer who terrorized Northern California in the 1960s and 1970s with a spree of still-unsolved murders. The Daily Dot traces the origins of the theory, which recently spread through Twitter with hashtag #ZodiacTed, back to 2013. Now two Texas men have capitalized on this bizarre meme by selling "Ted Cruz Was the Zodiac Killer" shirts online, and they're donating the profits to an organization that helps fund abortions.

Jezebel reports that the shirt was created by friends Tim Faust and Rory Blank, who do not actually believe Cruz is the Zodiac killer, but who wanted to use the meme to show people that Cruz - who is anti-abortion and anti-gay marriage - is scary. "There's no way Ted Cruz is the Zodiac killer - the dates don't match up," the site notes, jokingly. "However, there's no way of knowing whether Ted Cruz has sworn with his every waking breath to further the agenda of the Zodiac Killer, whom he may or may not love."

T-shirt profits will go the West Fund, a nonprofit that helps women pay for their abortions in El Paso, Texas, which is one of the poorest cities in America. El Paso has been hit hard by a controversial 2013 Texas law that required, among other things, abortion clinics to make costly building modifications in order to meet standards of ambulatory surgical centers. The law has resulted in the closure of a majority of abortion clinics across the state. "West Texans seeking abortion services have had two options: travel hundreds of miles to a San Antonio clinic, or cross the state line into New Mexico for the procedure," the Texas Observer reports. Cruz, of course, supports the law, which will be reviewed by the Supreme Court in March.

"We launched the shirt campaign because the Rio Grande Valley is an abortion wasteland ... and this was really bringin' us down," Faust told Cosmopolitan.com in an email." According to Faust, the campaign has raised $6,500 so far. The lack of options for women seeking to terminate a pregnancy is "a vision of the future" if the law is upheld in the Court, he explained, "and the cruelest penalties are levied upon those who can afford them least."

You can buy the shirts here.

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