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Gen Z activist mocked by Gaetz raises $1 million for 72-hour abortion access

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Olivia Julianna, the 19-year-old reproductive rights activist who this week turned an insult from Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) right into a fundraiser, has raised greater than $1.3 million for ladies in search of abortions – after taking simply 72 hours to achieve the million greenback mark.

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The donations impressed by Olivia Julianna, a political strategist with the nonprofit Gen Z for Change, pleasantly stunned abortion rights advocates. The $1.3 million raised by the group on Friday morning represents greater than 10% of what the Nationwide Community of Abortion Funds — which incorporates about 90 abortion funds in the US and Mexico — has distributed in a complete yr. . It is also sufficient to fund 1000’s of abortions, which value a median of $550 per service.

This implies “a bunch of people that simply would not have had their abortion now will,” said Liza Fuentes, senior researcher on the Guttmacher Institute in New York, who has studied reproductive well being look after 16 years.

Olivia Julianna, who solely makes use of his first and center names due to privateness issues, launched the fundraiser after a web-based trade with Gaetz. When she critical Gaetz for calling abortion rights activists ‘disgusting’ and obese at a political rally final week, the congressman hit again by posting his photograph on Twitter alongside a hyperlink to a information report mentioning his insults.

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by Gaetz Tweeter has been shared a whole bunch of occasions and has sets off on-line assaults on Olivia Julianna. When reached for touch upon his tweet and subsequent fundraiser, a spokesperson for Gaetz stated solely that no solicitation would change the brand new standing of the US as a ‘pro-life nation’. after Roe vs. Wade was overturned final month.

In the meantime, donations preserve pouring in and the “#ThanksMattGaetz” hashtag was trending on Twitter.

“After I initially organized this fundraiser, I hoped we might increase a couple of thousand {dollars},” Olivia Julianna said in a report. “That transfer… actually left me in awe.”

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Between July 2019 and June 2020, the Nationwide Community of Abortion Funds offered $9.4 million to ladies in want of monetary help for the process. The group has additionally helped greater than 80,000 folks bear in any other case financially burdensome procedures, he stated. However “that is solely 35% of the 229,510 calls our community obtained that yr,” the group stated on its web site.

“There’s a enormous unmet want,” stated Fuentes, the reproductive well being care professional. The common abortion prices of $550 doesn’t embrace journey, childcare or doable in a single day keep in a resort, she stated.


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