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 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 printed by Politico on Monday evening, sparked a frenzy of giving by Individuals to abortion clinics, groups that help people pay for abortions and organizations seeking to preserve abortion entry.

Beneficiaries included nationwide organizations with large operating budgets as well as small, unbiased clinics and regional teams which are typically ignored.

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NARAL Professional-Selection America, a nonprofit that acquired $12.9 million in donations in fiscal yr 2021, saw 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 p.c of donors had been giving for the primary time.

Between Monday evening and midday Wednesday, more than 4,000 donors gave greater than $100,000 to the Abortion Care Network, a national association of 150 unbiased U.S. abortion clinics. That was the most important wave of donations over that size of time that the association had ever acquired.

The money will go on to the clinics and assist them stay open to provide reproductive health services even when state legal guidelines prohibit them from offering abortions, the network's Government

Director Nikki Madsen said.

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

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

Planned Parenthood and Emily's Checklist, groups that advocate for reproductive rights, additionally did not instantly reply.

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

On Tuesday night time, Oklahoma enacted a legislation banning abortions after six weeks of being pregnant, shutting down almost all abortion companies in the state. read more

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

The Kentucky Health Justice Network, another abortion fund, received more than 1,000 donations with a mean value of $50 since Monday night time, 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 traveling to Ohio and Indiana for abortions.

Donors also gave to organizations in areas that could see an influx of patients seeking abortions as a result of native 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 greater 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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