Anti-abortion activists demonstrate at the US Supreme Court building on May 4 in Washington, DCAnna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Abortion clinics and abortion-rights groups have flooded with donations since a draft US Supreme Court ruling was leaked showing justices were apparently poised to overturn the landmark Roe v. . Wades from 1973.
The draft ruling, which was published by Politico late Monday, sparked a flurry of donations by Americans to abortion clinics, groups that help people pay for abortions and organizations that seek to preserve access to care. abortion.
Grantees included national organizations with large operating budgets, as well as small independent clinics and regional groups that are often overlooked.
NARAL Pro-Choice America, a nonprofit organization that received $12.9 million in donations in fiscal year 2021, saw a 1,403% increase in donations in the 24 hours after the news broke compared to the day before, spokeswoman Kristin Ford said. Fifty-one percent of donors were giving for the first time.
Between Monday night and noon Wednesday, more than 4,000 donors gave more than $100,000 to the Abortion Care Network, a national association of 150 independent abortion clinics in the US. That was the largest wave of donations during that period of time that the association had received.
The money will go directly to the clinics and help them stay open to provide reproductive health services even if state laws prohibit them from performing abortions, said the network’s executive director, Nikki Madsen.
“We are going to continue to fight in the states to regain access to abortion,” Madsen said. “We need to keep those clinics open in the interim.”
Advocates both for and against abortion rights say they will use the Supreme Court ruling, expected in late June, to mobilize voters for the 2022 midterm elections. National anti-abortion groups Susan B The Anthony List and the March for Life did not immediately respond to inquiries about donations.
Planned Parenthood and Emily’s List, groups that advocate for reproductive rights, also did not immediately respond.
The Roe Fund, an Oklahoma abortion fund that gives money to clinics in the state to support patient procedures, had more than 8,000 donors contribute more than $50,000 on Tuesday, fund treasurer Janice Massey said.
On Tuesday night, Oklahoma enacted a law banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, shutting down almost all abortion services in the state.
“This is without a doubt the biggest increase (in donations) that I have seen in the 13 years that I have been doing this work,” Massey said.
Kentucky Health Justice Network, another abortion fund, has received more than 1,000 donations averaging $50 in value as of Monday night, Chief Operating Officer Ashley Jacobs said Wednesday. When a Kentucky law suspended intrastate abortion services for eight days in April, the network helped patients traveling to Ohio and Indiana for abortions.
Donors also gave to organizations in areas that could see an influx of patients seeking abortions because local laws protect abortion rights.
The DC Abortion Fund, which funds abortions in the nation’s capital as well as Virginia and Maryland, received more than $105,000 in donations between Monday night and Wednesday morning, spokesman Devin Simpson said.
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