Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott has donated $275 million to Planned Parenthood’s national office and 21 regional affiliates, the organization announced Wednesday.
The donation, which is the largest gift from a single donor in the organization’s history, is part of Scott’s promise to give away most of the wealth she acquired through her divorce from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Scott, who is worth an estimated $49 billion, received a 4 percent stake in Amazon.com from the divorce.
“We are incredibly grateful for Ms. Scott’s extraordinary philanthropic investment in Planned Parenthood, as a critical part of the public health infrastructure,” Planned Parenthood Chief Executive Alexis McGill Johnson said in a statement.
“This funding will support our efforts to advance health equity by eliminating racial and structural barriers for our patients in the communities where Planned Parenthood works,” the statement added.
Abortion services make up 3 percent of the women’s health services Planned Parenthood provides, according to the organization. However, Planned Parenthood’s clinics perform an estimated one-third to one-half of all the abortions that take place in the U.S. each year, making it by far the largest abortion provider in the country.
In 2019, the most recent year for which data is available, Planned Parenthood performed almost 355,000 abortions, a sizable increase from the 321,000 abortions performed just three years earlier.
The organization has painted abortion as a cause for celebration at times, including earlier this month when its lobbying arm installed an “abortion rights” ice-cream truck distributing condoms at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas.
“Ice cream, you scream, we all scream for abortion rights!” Alexis McGill Johnson tweeted earlier this month. “Catch us around SXSW and stop by to grab some free Bans Off swag, condoms, and education on the cold hearted policies of the Texas legislature. #BansOffOurBodies #SXSW.”
Ice cream, you scream, we all scream for abortion rights!
Catch us around SXSW and stop by to grab some free Bans Off swag, condoms, and education on the cold hearted policies of the Texas legislature. #BansOffOurBodies #SXSW pic.twitter.com/vGvF8WWg6r
— Alexis McGill Johnson (@alexismcgill) March 12, 2022
The truck was covered with pink and blue posters that read, “Ice Cream You Scream: Abortion Rights for All,” “Ice Cream as Cold as Texas Politicians,” “Join the Fight to Defend Abortion Access,” and “#BANSOFFOURBODIES,” the photo shows.
Meanwhile, Scott wrote in a Medium post on Wednesday that she has donated more than $3.8 billion to 465 non-profits since last June.
“Our team’s focus over these last nine months has included some new areas, but as always our aim has been to support the needs of underrepresented people from groups of all kinds. The cause of equity has no sides,” she wrote.
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