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Planned Parenthood Donations More Than Triple in Maine

Nora Flaherty
/
Maine Public
Planned Parenthood supporters rally in September in downtown Portland.

It's an important time of year for charitable donations, but Planned Parenthood of Northern New England may have had an even more important date: Nov. 8.

Since Election Day, spokeswoman Nicole Clegg say donations nationally have gone up by about $300,000.

"The number of donations that have been made, when we compare it to last year, it's more than three times what we've seen traditionally," she says of donations in Maine.

Clegg also says many are coming from a new set of donors.

"What's unique about what we're experiencing right now is the number of young donors, people in their 20s and 30s, who are making small donations, who are often first-time donors to our organization," she says.

And Clegg says the number of people wanting to volunteer at Planned Parenthood has also surged.

She says with congressional Republicans eager to pull federal funding from the organization, including about $400 in Medicaid reimbursements, people are coming forward in support.

And although many of the recent donations were made in the name of vice president-elect and longtime enemy of Planned Parenthood Mike Pence as part of a national movement, Clegg says many other people donated for more personal reasons.

Planned Parenthood in Maine serves about 10,000 people a year, from health centers in Biddeford, Sanford, Portland and Topsham.

Nora is originally from the Boston area but has lived in Chicago, Michigan, New York City and at the northern tip of New York state. Nora began working in public radio at Michigan Radio in Ann Arbor and has been an on-air host, a reporter, a digital editor, a producer, and, when they let her, played records.