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

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

The draft ruling, which was printed by Politico on Monday evening, sparked a frenzy of giving by People to abortion clinics, teams that help individuals pay for abortions and organizations searching for to protect abortion access.

Beneficiaries included national organizations with massive working budgets as well as small, independent clinics and regional teams that are often neglected.

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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% increase in donations in the 24 hours after the information broke in comparison with the day before, spokesperson Kristin Ford mentioned. Fifty-one percent of donors have been giving for the first time.

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

The cash 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 Executive

Director Nikki Madsen said.

"We will proceed to be fighting in the states to deliver again abortion access," Madsen stated. "We need to preserve these clinics open in that interim."

Advocates both for and towards abortion rights say they are going to use the Supreme Court's ruling, anticipated 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 did not instantly reply to inquiries about donations.

Planned Parenthood and Emily's Record, teams that advocate for reproductive rights, additionally didn't instantly respond.

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

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

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

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

Donors also gave to organizations in areas that might see an influx of patients searching for abortions as a result of native laws protect abortion rights.

The DC Abortion Fund, which funds abortions in the nation's capital in addition to in Virginia and Maryland, acquired greater than $105,000 in donations between Monday evening and Wednesday morning, spokesperson Devin Simpson said.

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

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.