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

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

The draft ruling, which was revealed by Politico on Monday evening, sparked a frenzy of giving by Americans to abortion clinics, groups that help people pay for abortions and organizations searching for to preserve abortion entry.

Beneficiaries included national organizations with giant working budgets as well as small, unbiased clinics and regional teams which can be usually missed.

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NARAL Pro-Choice America, a nonprofit that received $12.9 million in donations in fiscal year 2021, saw a 1,403% increase in donations in the 24 hours after the news broke compared to the day earlier than, spokesperson Kristin Ford stated. Fifty-one percent of donors had been giving for the first time.

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

The money will go on to the clinics and assist them keep open to supply reproductive well being services even when state legal guidelines prohibit them from offering abortions, the community's Govt

Director Nikki Madsen said.

"We will continue to be fighting within the states to convey back abortion access," Madsen mentioned. "We need to preserve those clinics open in that interim."

Advocates each for and against abortion rights say they will use the Supreme Court's ruling, expected by the tip of June, to mobilize voters for the 2022 midterm elections. National anti-abortion teams Susan B. Anthony Listing and March for Life didn't immediately respond to inquiries about donations.

Deliberate Parenthood and Emily's Listing, teams that advocate for reproductive rights, also did not instantly respond.

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

On Tuesday evening, Oklahoma enacted a law banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, shutting down almost all abortion services in the state. read extra

"This is actually the biggest surge (in donations) I've seen in the 13 years I have been doing this work," Massey mentioned.

The Kentucky Well being Justice Network, another abortion fund, obtained more than 1,000 donations with a mean worth of $50 since Monday night, Operations Director Ashley Jacobs said on Wednesday. When a Kentucky law suspended in-state abortion services for eight days in April, the community assisted patients touring to Ohio and Indiana for abortions.

Donors also gave to organizations in areas that could see an inflow of patients seeking abortions because local laws protect abortion rights.

The DC Abortion Fund, which funds abortions within the nation's capital as well as in Virginia and Maryland, received more 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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