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

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

The draft ruling, which was revealed by Politico on Monday night, sparked a frenzy of giving by Americans to abortion clinics, groups that help individuals pay for abortions and organizations looking for to protect abortion entry.

Beneficiaries included national organizations with massive working budgets in addition to small, impartial clinics and regional teams which might be usually ignored.

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

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

The cash will go on to the clinics and help them stay open to supply reproductive health services even when state laws prohibit them from offering abortions, the community's Executive

Director Nikki Madsen mentioned.

"We're going to continue to be fighting within the states to carry again abortion entry," Madsen mentioned. "We have to hold those clinics open in that interim."

Advocates both for and towards abortion rights say they may use the Supreme Courtroom's ruling, anticipated by the top of June, to mobilize voters for the 2022 midterm elections. National anti-abortion teams Susan B. Anthony Checklist and March for Life did not 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 support patients' procedures, had more 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 legislation banning abortions after six weeks of being pregnant, shutting down almost all abortion providers in the state. learn extra

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

The Kentucky Health Justice Network, another abortion fund, acquired more than 1,000 donations with an average worth of $50 since Monday evening, Operations Director Ashley Jacobs stated on Wednesday. When a Kentucky legislation suspended in-state abortion services for eight days in April, the community assisted patients traveling to Ohio and Indiana for abortions.

Donors additionally gave to organizations in areas that might see an inflow of patients seeking abortions because native laws shield abortion rights.

The DC Abortion Fund, which funds abortions within the nation's capital in addition to in Virginia and Maryland, acquired 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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