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

May 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 decision.

The draft ruling, which was published by Politico on Monday night, sparked a frenzy of giving by Americans to abortion clinics, teams that assist people pay for abortions and organizations in search of to protect abortion entry.

Beneficiaries included nationwide organizations with massive operating budgets as well as small, independent clinics and regional teams which might be often ignored.

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NARAL Pro-Selection America, a nonprofit that obtained $12.9 million in donations in fiscal yr 2021, saw a 1,403% increase in donations within the 24 hours after the information broke in comparison with the day earlier than, spokesperson Kristin Ford stated. Fifty-one % of donors were giving for the first time.

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

The cash will go directly to the clinics and help them keep open to supply reproductive health companies even when state laws prohibit them from providing abortions, the network's Govt

Director Nikki Madsen said.

"We'll continue to be fighting in the states to deliver again abortion entry," Madsen mentioned. "We need to keep those clinics open in that interim."

Advocates both for and towards abortion rights say they will use the Supreme Court's ruling, anticipated by the end of June, to mobilize voters for the 2022 midterm elections. National anti-abortion teams Susan B. Anthony Checklist and March for Life didn't immediately reply to inquiries about donations.

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

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

On Tuesday night, Oklahoma enacted a law banning abortions after six weeks of being pregnant, shutting down virtually all abortion services within the state. read extra

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

The Kentucky Health Justice Community, another abortion fund, received greater than 1,000 donations with an average worth of $50 since Monday night, Operations Director Ashley Jacobs said on Wednesday. When a Kentucky regulation suspended in-state abortion providers for eight days in April, the network assisted patients touring to Ohio and Indiana for abortions.

Donors also gave to organizations in areas that might see an inflow of sufferers seeking abortions because 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 mentioned.

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

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