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

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

The draft ruling, which was published by Politico on Monday evening, sparked a frenzy of giving by Americans to abortion clinics, groups that help individuals pay for abortions and organizations searching for to protect abortion access.

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

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NARAL Pro-Alternative America, a nonprofit that obtained $12.9 million in donations in fiscal year 2021, saw a 1,403% increase in donations in the 24 hours after the information broke in comparison with the day before, spokesperson Kristin Ford mentioned. Fifty-one percent of donors were giving for the first time.

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

The cash will go directly to the clinics and assist them stay open to supply reproductive health companies even when state legal guidelines prohibit them from providing abortions, the community's Executive

Director Nikki Madsen said.

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

Advocates each for and towards abortion rights say they'll use the Supreme Courtroom's ruling, expected by the end of June, to mobilize voters for the 2022 midterm elections. Nationwide anti-abortion groups Susan B. Anthony Listing and March for Life didn't instantly respond to inquiries about donations.

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

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

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

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

The Kentucky Health Justice Community, one other abortion fund, received greater than 1,000 donations with a median value of $50 since Monday night time, Operations Director Ashley Jacobs said on Wednesday. When a Kentucky legislation suspended in-state abortion services for eight days in April, the network assisted patients traveling to Ohio and Indiana for abortions.

Donors additionally gave to organizations in areas that might see an influx of patients searching for abortions because local legal guidelines shield abortion rights.

The DC Abortion Fund, which funds abortions in the nation's capital as well as in Virginia and Maryland, received greater than $105,000 in donations between Monday evening 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 Principles.