MacKenzie Scott, Michael Bloomberg Among The Biggest Billionaire Donors To Abortion-Rights Groups

Rachel Sandler, forbes.com, May 12, 2022

When MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, donated $275 million to Planned Parenthood earlier this year, it broke records. The gift was the largest in the organization’s history from a single donor, a sum meant to bolster Planned Parenthood’s operations just as the anti-abortion movement closed in on its decades-long quest to overturn Roe v. Wade.

The U.S. Supreme Court now appears on the verge of striking down the landmark decision, allowing states to ban abortion outright for the first time in nearly five decades. Though the nation’s wealthiest philanthropists have been giving to reproductive rights groups for decades, the cause constitutes a relatively small portion of overall philanthropic giving. According to the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, $1.7 billion went to reproductive rights nonprofits from 2015 to 2019. That’s 2.2% of the $76 billion from foundations during that time period.

Even less money, $361 million, was earmarked specifically fo…