KY group working to protect abortion access raises four times as much as opposing campaign
A group determined to defeat a GOP-backed ballot question this November that seeks to remove a protected right to abortion from the Kentucky constitution has raised nearly $1.5 million this year in campaign donations.
Protect Kentucky Access, in its Registry of Election Finance report for 2022 released Tuesday, includes donations from hundreds of individuals, including many physicians. The bulk of donations, however, have been fronted by large groups: Planned Parenthood and its affiliates, the largest campaign donor, has contributed just over $700,000 to PKA. The American Civil Liberties Union has donated $300,000 and Families United for Freedom has given $250,000. Counting last year’s contributions, PKA has amassed close to $1.75 million.
PKA’s opponent group, Yes For Life, has raised $350,000 in 2022 by comparison ($460,000, including last year’s donations).
Having received markedly fewer individual contributions, Yes For Life is buoyed by chunks of money from religious and religious-affiliated groups: $72,000 from the Kentucky Baptist Convention, $64,000 from the Catholic Conference of Kentucky and $94,000 from the Family Foundation of Kentucky this year.
With Kentucky’s trigger law in place, PKA is capitalizing on voter frustration over the near-complete elimination of abortion access in the state, spurred by the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade in late June. Its considerable fundraising lead over Yes For Life could be indicative of a swelling of support among Kentuckians who think state abortion restrictions, crafted under a Republican super majority General Assembly, have gone too far.
“For us, it’s really about two things: this is about government control of private medical decisions, and this would pave the way for a permanent ban on abortion with no exceptions,” PKA Campaign Manager Rachel Sweet said in an interview with the Herald-Leader earlier this month.
With less than 60 days to go until Election Day, Sweet said Wednesday morning that the accruing donations indicate Kentuckians are “fired up and ready to vote ‘no’ on Amendment 2.”
“We are pleased with both the grassroots enthusiasm and national fundraising support our campaign has generated and are prepared to carry that energy into the November election,” she said in a statement.
Sweet, hired to lead PKA in late August, previously served as campaign manager for Kansans for Constitutional Freedom, the group that defeated, by double-digit margins, a similar constitutional amendment in early August that would have revoked abortion access in Kansas.
The result from that ballot initiative appears to have bolstered money given to defeat Kentucky’s constitutional amendment. Roughly 75% of all donations to Protect Kentucky Access poured in after the Kansas vote on August 2.
In a statement Wednesday afternoon, Addia Wuchner, chair of the Right to Life Alliance and executive director of Kentucky Right to Life, attributed PKA’s financial advantage to “radical, out-of-state liberal interests.”
Those groups, Wuchner said, “want to spend Kentucky taxpayer dollars on abortions up until the moment of birth. Voting Yes on 2 will stop spending taxpayer money on abortion and allow for a reasonable framework of abortion laws in Kentucky that respects the right to life and the health of mothers.”
Herald-Leader writer Austin Horn contributed to this report.
This story may be updated.
This story was originally published September 14, 2022 at 11:51 AM.
