Donations to U.S. abortion rights teams, clinics surge after Supreme Courtroom leak

May 4 (Reuters) - Donations have flooded into abortion clinics and abortion-rights advocacy groups since the leak of a U.S. Supreme Court 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 people pay for abortions and organizations in search of to preserve abortion access.

Beneficiaries included nationwide organizations with massive working budgets in addition to small, unbiased clinics and regional groups that are often overlooked.

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NARAL Pro-Choice America, a nonprofit that acquired $12.9 million in donations in fiscal 12 months 2021, saw a 1,403% enhance in donations within the 24 hours after the information broke in comparison with the day before, spokesperson Kristin Ford stated. Fifty-one % of donors had been giving for the first time.

Between Monday night time and noon Wednesday, greater than 4,000 donors gave greater than $100,000 to the Abortion Care Network, a national association of 150 independent U.S. abortion clinics. That was the biggest wave of donations over that size of time that the association had ever obtained.

The money will go directly to the clinics and assist them keep open to supply reproductive health services even if state laws prohibit them from providing abortions, the network's Government

Director Nikki Madsen said.

"We'll proceed to be combating in the states to carry back abortion access," Madsen said. "We have to preserve those clinics open in that interim."

Advocates both for and against abortion rights say they are going to use the Supreme Court's ruling, expected by the end of June, to mobilize voters for the 2022 midterm elections. Nationwide anti-abortion groups Susan B. Anthony Listing and March for Life did not immediately respond to inquiries about donations.

Deliberate Parenthood and Emily's Listing, teams that advocate for reproductive rights, also didn't immediately reply.

The Roe Fund, an abortion fund in Oklahoma that offers money to the state's clinics to assist patients' procedures, had greater than 8,000 donors contribute greater than $50,000 on Tuesday, the fund's Treasurer Janice Massey stated.

On Tuesday night, Oklahoma enacted a law banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, shutting down almost all abortion providers in 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 stated.

The Kentucky Well being Justice Network, another abortion fund, received more than 1,000 donations with a median value of $50 since Monday evening, Operations Director Ashley Jacobs stated on Wednesday. When a Kentucky legislation suspended in-state abortion providers for eight days in April, the community assisted patients touring to Ohio and Indiana for abortions.

Donors additionally gave to organizations in areas that might see an influx of patients looking for abortions because local laws defend abortion rights.

The DC Abortion Fund, which funds abortions within the nation's capital in addition to in Virginia and Maryland, obtained greater than $105,000 in donations between Monday night time 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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