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

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

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 seeking to preserve abortion access.

Beneficiaries included national organizations with large operating budgets as well as small, independent clinics and regional teams which are usually overlooked.

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NARAL Professional-Alternative America, a nonprofit that obtained $12.9 million in donations in fiscal year 2021, noticed a 1,403% improve in donations within the 24 hours after the information broke compared to the day earlier than, spokesperson Kristin Ford said. Fifty-one p.c of donors were giving for the first time.

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

The money will go directly to the clinics and assist them keep open to provide reproductive well being services even if state legal guidelines prohibit them from providing abortions, the network's Executive

Director Nikki Madsen said.

"We'll proceed to be combating within the states to deliver again abortion entry," Madsen mentioned. "We need to hold those clinics open in that interim."

Advocates both for and against abortion rights say they will use the Supreme Court's ruling, expected by the top of June, to mobilize voters for the 2022 midterm elections. National anti-abortion groups Susan B. Anthony Record and March for Life didn't instantly reply to inquiries about donations.

Deliberate Parenthood and Emily's Record, groups that advocate for reproductive rights, additionally did not immediately respond.

The Roe Fund, an abortion fund in Oklahoma that provides cash to the state's clinics to assist sufferers' procedures, had greater than 8,000 donors contribute greater 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 pregnancy, shutting down virtually all abortion companies within the state. learn more

"This is actually the most important surge (in donations) I've seen in the 13 years I've been doing this work," Massey stated.

The Kentucky Well being Justice Community, another abortion fund, received more than 1,000 donations with a mean value of $50 since Monday night, Operations Director Ashley Jacobs mentioned on Wednesday. When a Kentucky law suspended in-state abortion providers for eight days in April, the community assisted patients 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 local laws defend 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 time 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 Ideas.