since Donald Trump was elected president six years ago.In the first three weeks after the Supreme Court overturned, the National Network of Abortion Funds raised nearly $11 million for local funds, more than all abortion funds in the networkBut demand is also rising, said Floren of the South Dakota fund. She said she got nearly as many calls in the first week of July as she did in all of April, including several from people outside of South Dakota desperate to find anyone who could help.
Callers are asking for more money too, according to Floren. Fewer clinics doing abortions means longer delays, which can drive up a procedure's cost. And since everyone in South Dakota has to leave the state to get an abortion, travel costs are also going up. "By the time you count in somebody who has to drive 600 miles and then stay two or three nights in a hotel, and then they have to eat that whole time while they're there ... a lot of times the practical support costs just as much as the actual funding for the abortion," Floren said.
Floren estimates she's already doled out at least $5,000 in practical support since a draft of the Supreme Court decision leaked in May. That's more than she spent on travel costs all last year. She regularly reaches out to other abortion funds to try to cobble together enough funding for callers. "You just try to make it a little bit easier [for callers] because it's already so difficult," she said.Floren and other abortion fund leaders say the biggest change they've seen post-"I've had people come up to me and say, 'I'm afraid to call you all because I don't want my line getting tapped. I don't want to go to jail.
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