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

Could 4 (Reuters) - Donations have flooded into abortion clinics and abortion-rights advocacy groups because the leak of a U.S. Supreme Courtroom 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 Americans to abortion clinics, teams that help individuals pay for abortions and organizations looking for to preserve abortion access.

Beneficiaries included national organizations with giant working budgets in addition to small, impartial clinics and regional teams which can be usually overlooked.

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NARAL Pro-Choice America, a nonprofit that received $12.9 million in donations in fiscal year 2021, noticed a 1,403% increase in donations within the 24 hours after the news broke compared to the day earlier than, spokesperson Kristin Ford said. Fifty-one % of donors were giving for the first time.

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

The cash will go on to the clinics and assist them stay open to provide reproductive well being providers even when state legal guidelines prohibit them from offering abortions, the network's Govt

Director Nikki Madsen said.

"We'll proceed to be combating in the states to carry again abortion access," Madsen stated. "We need to keep those clinics open in that interim."

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

Deliberate Parenthood and Emily's Record, groups that advocate for reproductive rights, also didn't immediately reply.

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

On Tuesday night time, Oklahoma enacted a law banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, shutting down almost all abortion services in the state. read more

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

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

Donors additionally gave to organizations in areas that might see an inflow of patients looking for abortions because native legal guidelines defend abortion rights.

The DC Abortion Fund, which funds abortions in 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 stated.

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

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