by Kate Anderson
Abortion activists in Florida are frustrated after the state’s Supreme Court ruling allowing a fetal heartbeat law to take effect failed to produce “rage” donations.
The Florida Supreme Court ruled in favor of a law signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis in April 2023 that would prohibit a doctor from performing an abortion after a heartbeat is detected, usually around six weeks of pregnancy. McKenna Kelley, a board member of the Tampa Bay Abortion Fund, said that, unlike the aftermath of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022, the Florida ruling had produced little “rage giving” despite a growing demand for funding for abortions, according to Axios.
“It’s really important that if you care about people having access to abortion, you help support us,” Kelley told Axios.
The Tampa Bay Abortion Fund helps pay for women to travel out of state to get an abortion if they are past the six-week mark, according to the group’s website. Kelley explained that the group covers a wide variety of needs and that they will pay out anywhere from $10 to $1,900, with the average cost being around $1,100, according to Axios.
After the ruling, Kelley said there was a small increase in giving but nothing like what the group saw after the Dobbs decision in June 2022, according to Axios. The fund reportedly raised over three times its annual budget after the Supreme Court overturned Roe.
The Tampa fund is not the only abortion group struggling to make ends meet over the last several years. Groups like the National Network of Abortion Funds and the Louisiana Abortion Fund said in January that they were having to scale back their services or risk shutting down due to the lack of “rage” donations coming in.
Additionally, the Florida Supreme Court also ruled in favor Monday of putting an abortion amendment on the ballot for voters to weigh in on in November.
Currently, three states have abortion amendments on the ballot, including New York and Maryland, with Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada and South Dakota considering similar initiatives.
Kelley said that it was “frustrating” to see people celebrating the court’s decision and overlooking the heartbeat bill that will soon go into effect, according to Axios.
“It was personally quite frustrating on Monday to see celebration … knowing how many people are not going to be able to get an abortion between May and, if the ballot measure passes, whenever that goes into effect,” Kelley said.
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Kate Anderson is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “Florida Supreme Court” by Steven Martin. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
