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

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

The draft ruling, which was printed by Politico on Monday night, sparked a frenzy of giving by People to abortion clinics, groups that assist people pay for abortions and organizations in search of to preserve abortion entry.

Beneficiaries included nationwide organizations with large working budgets as well as small, impartial clinics and regional groups that are usually neglected.

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NARAL Professional-Alternative America, a nonprofit that acquired $12.9 million in donations in fiscal 12 months 2021, saw a 1,403% improve in donations in the 24 hours after the news broke compared to the day before, spokesperson Kristin Ford said. Fifty-one percent of donors had been giving for the first 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 association of 150 independent U.S. abortion clinics. That was the biggest wave of donations over that length of time that the association had ever acquired.

The money will go on to the clinics and assist them stay open to supply reproductive health services even if state legal guidelines prohibit them from offering abortions, the community's Executive

Director Nikki Madsen mentioned.

"We will continue to be preventing within the states to convey back abortion entry," Madsen said. "We have to keep those clinics open in that interim."

Advocates each for and in opposition to abortion rights say they will use the Supreme Court's ruling, anticipated by the tip of June, to mobilize voters for the 2022 midterm elections. National anti-abortion teams Susan B. Anthony Listing and March for Life didn't immediately reply to inquiries about donations.

Deliberate Parenthood and Emily's Record, teams that advocate for reproductive rights, also did not immediately reply.

The Roe Fund, an abortion fund in Oklahoma that gives cash 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 night, Oklahoma enacted a regulation banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, shutting down almost all abortion providers in the state. read more

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

The Kentucky Health Justice Network, another abortion fund, received greater than 1,000 donations with a mean worth 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 touring to Ohio and Indiana for abortions.

Donors also gave to organizations in areas that might see an inflow of patients searching for abortions because local laws protect abortion rights.

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

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

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