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

Could 4 (Reuters) - Donations have flooded into abortion clinics and abortion-rights advocacy groups 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 decision.

The draft ruling, which was printed by Politico on Monday night, sparked a frenzy of giving by Americans to abortion clinics, groups that assist individuals pay for abortions and organizations seeking to preserve abortion entry.

Beneficiaries included nationwide organizations with massive working budgets in addition to small, independent clinics and regional groups that are typically neglected.

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NARAL Professional-Selection America, a nonprofit that received $12.9 million in donations in fiscal year 2021, noticed a 1,403% increase in donations in the 24 hours after the information broke in comparison with the day earlier than, spokesperson Kristin Ford mentioned. Fifty-one % of donors had been giving for the first time.

Between Monday night and midday Wednesday, more than 4,000 donors gave greater than $100,000 to the Abortion Care Community, a nationwide affiliation of 150 independent U.S. abortion clinics. That was the biggest wave of donations over that length of time that the association had ever acquired.

The cash will go directly to the clinics and assist them stay open to offer reproductive well being companies even if state legal guidelines prohibit them from providing abortions, the community's Executive

Director Nikki Madsen stated.

"We'll proceed to be fighting in the states to convey back abortion entry," Madsen stated. "We need to hold these clinics open in that interim."

Advocates each for and in opposition to abortion rights say they are going to use the Supreme Court docket's ruling, anticipated by the top of June, to mobilize voters for the 2022 midterm elections. Nationwide anti-abortion groups Susan B. Anthony Listing and March for Life didn't immediately reply to inquiries about donations.

Planned Parenthood and Emily's Checklist, groups that advocate for reproductive rights, also didn't immediately reply.

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

On Tuesday night time, Oklahoma enacted a regulation banning abortions after six weeks of being pregnant, shutting down virtually all abortion providers within the state. learn extra

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

The Kentucky Well being Justice Network, one other abortion fund, received more than 1,000 donations with a median value of $50 since Monday night time, Operations Director Ashley Jacobs said on Wednesday. When a Kentucky law suspended in-state abortion companies for eight days in April, the network assisted patients touring to Ohio and Indiana for abortions.

Donors additionally gave to organizations in areas that could see an inflow of sufferers looking for abortions as a result of local legal guidelines protect abortion rights.

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

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

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