Donations to U.S. abortion rights groups, clinics surge after Supreme Court leak

Might 4 (Reuters) - Donations have flooded into abortion clinics and abortion-rights advocacy teams since the leak of a U.S. Supreme Court docket draft ruling that showed the justices apparently poised to overturn the 1973 landmark Roe v. Wade choice.

The draft ruling, which was printed by Politico on Monday evening, sparked a frenzy of giving by People to abortion clinics, groups that assist individuals pay for abortions and organizations looking for to preserve abortion access.

Beneficiaries included national organizations with giant operating budgets in addition to small, independent clinics and regional teams which are often missed.

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NARAL Professional-Choice America, a nonprofit that received $12.9 million in donations in fiscal yr 2021, noticed a 1,403% enhance in donations within the 24 hours after the information broke compared to the day before, spokesperson Kristin Ford mentioned. Fifty-one percent of donors have been giving for the first time.

Between Monday evening and noon Wednesday, more than 4,000 donors gave more than $100,000 to the Abortion Care Community, a nationwide affiliation of 150 impartial U.S. abortion clinics. That was the largest wave of donations over that size of time that the affiliation had ever obtained.

The cash will go on to the clinics and assist them stay open to offer reproductive well being providers even when state legal guidelines prohibit them from providing abortions, the network's Govt

Director Nikki Madsen stated.

"We're going to continue to be fighting within the states to carry back abortion access," Madsen mentioned. "We need to maintain those clinics open in that interim."

Advocates each for and against abortion rights say they may use the Supreme Court's ruling, anticipated by the end of June, to mobilize voters for the 2022 midterm elections. Nationwide anti-abortion groups Susan B. Anthony Record and March for Life didn't immediately reply to inquiries about donations.

Planned Parenthood and Emily's List, teams that advocate for reproductive rights, also did not immediately reply.

The Roe Fund, an abortion fund in Oklahoma that provides money to the state's clinics to help sufferers' procedures, had more than 8,000 donors contribute greater than $50,000 on Tuesday, the fund's Treasurer Janice Massey said.

On Tuesday evening, Oklahoma enacted a legislation banning abortions after six weeks of being pregnant, shutting down nearly all abortion providers within the state. learn extra

"That is definitely the largest surge (in donations) I've seen within the 13 years I have been doing this work," Massey mentioned.

The Kentucky Health Justice Network, one other abortion fund, received greater than 1,000 donations with an average worth of $50 since Monday night, Operations Director Ashley Jacobs said on Wednesday. When a Kentucky legislation suspended in-state abortion companies for eight days in April, the community assisted patients touring to Ohio and Indiana for abortions.

Donors also gave to organizations in areas that might see an inflow of patients looking for abortions as a result of local laws shield abortion rights.

The DC Abortion Fund, which funds abortions within the nation's capital as well as in Virginia and Maryland, obtained greater than $105,000 in donations between Monday night and Wednesday morning, spokesperson Devin Simpson mentioned.

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Reporting by Gabriella Borter; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Cynthia Osterman

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