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

May 4 (Reuters) - Donations have flooded into abortion clinics and abortion-rights advocacy teams because the leak of a U.S. Supreme Courtroom draft ruling that showed the justices apparently poised to overturn the 1973 landmark Roe v. Wade resolution.

The draft ruling, which was revealed by Politico on Monday evening, sparked a frenzy of giving by People to abortion clinics, teams that help individuals pay for abortions and organizations looking for to protect abortion access.

Beneficiaries included national organizations with large operating budgets in addition to small, independent clinics and regional teams which are typically ignored.

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NARAL Pro-Selection America, a nonprofit that obtained $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 before, spokesperson Kristin Ford mentioned. Fifty-one % of donors had been giving for the primary time.

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

The cash will go directly to the clinics and help them stay open to supply reproductive well being services even if state legal guidelines prohibit them from providing abortions, the community's Executive

Director Nikki Madsen mentioned.

"We'll continue to be combating in the states to bring back abortion access," Madsen mentioned. "We have to hold these clinics open in that interim."

Advocates both for and towards abortion rights say they will use the Supreme Courtroom's ruling, anticipated by the tip of June, to mobilize voters for the 2022 midterm elections. National anti-abortion teams Susan B. Anthony Checklist and March for Life didn't instantly 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 support patients' procedures, had more than 8,000 donors contribute more than $50,000 on Tuesday, the fund's Treasurer Janice Massey said.

On Tuesday night, Oklahoma enacted a regulation banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, shutting down virtually all abortion services within the state. learn more

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

The Kentucky Well being Justice Network, one other abortion fund, received greater than 1,000 donations with a mean worth of $50 since Monday night, Operations Director Ashley Jacobs mentioned on Wednesday. When a Kentucky regulation suspended in-state abortion companies for eight days in April, the community assisted sufferers touring to Ohio and Indiana for abortions.

Donors also gave to organizations in areas that could see an influx of patients searching for abortions because local laws shield abortion rights.

The DC Abortion Fund, which funds abortions within the nation's capital as well as in Virginia and Maryland, received more than $105,000 in donations between Monday night and Wednesday morning, spokesperson Devin Simpson mentioned.

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

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.