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 groups because the leak of a U.S. Supreme Court draft ruling that showed the justices apparently poised to overturn the 1973 landmark Roe v. Wade determination.

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

Beneficiaries included national organizations with giant working budgets as well as small, impartial clinics and regional groups which can be often overlooked.

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

Between Monday night 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 largest wave of donations over that length of time that the association had ever acquired.

The money will go on to the clinics and help them keep open to provide reproductive health services even if state laws prohibit them from offering abortions, the network's Govt

Director Nikki Madsen mentioned.

"We will continue to be combating within the states to convey again abortion access," Madsen said. "We need to maintain 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 did not immediately respond to inquiries about donations.

Deliberate Parenthood and Emily's Checklist, teams that advocate for reproductive rights, additionally didn't immediately reply.

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

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

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

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

Donors also gave to organizations in areas that would see an influx of patients seeking abortions because local legal guidelines protect abortion rights.

The DC Abortion Fund, which funds abortions within the nation's capital in addition to 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; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Cynthia Osterman

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.