A crowdfunding platform has joined the mass liberal panic over state abortion bans.
GoFundMe, the for-profit site where users create donation funds, made its own campaign to raise money for abortion clinics. On June 21, the fund was launched with the promise that all the donations would be handed over to Planned Parenthood, National Network of Abortion Funds, and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). GoFundMe started the donations with a $25,000 donation from its own business.
The post described the pro-choice meltdown as if it were the impending abortion apocalypse. “Access to abortion is under attack in this country,” said GoFundMe. The site feared that Roe v. Wade would be challenged in the Supreme Court, and the “constitutional right to abortion” would be taken away.
The new laws in Missouri, Georgia, and Alabama that ban abortions after six weeks apparently “hit people of color and those who are struggling to make ends meet the hardest.”
On Twitter, Planned Parenthood publicly thanked GoFundMe, saying “We're so thankful to @gofundme for this extraordinary effort to support Planned Parenthood, alongside our trusted allies working to protect and expand access to abortion care.”
According to Marie Claire, the fund will go to “help keep places like Planned Parenthood accessible.” GoFundMe had banned abortion funds in 2014, but now it seems that policy is over.
In the same week, GoFundMe banned Australian soccer player Israel Folau for saying that “Those that are living in sin will end up in hell unless you repent.” Folau lost a $54 million soccer contract because of those words.
He started a legal fund on GoFundMe and raised $760,000 on the platform before GoFundMe suspended it. The platform claimed that Folau violated its terms of service. In a statement, GoFundMe said, “As a company, we are absolutely committed to the fight for equality for LGBTQ people and fostering an environment of inclusivity. While we welcome GoFundMes engaging in diverse civil debate, we do not tolerate the promotion of discrimination or exclusion.”
