Comment Olivia Julianna, the 19-year-old reproductive rights activist who this week turned an insult from Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) into a fundraiser, has raised more than $1.3 million for women seeking abortions — after having to just 72 hours to reach the $1 million mark. The donations inspired by Olivia Julianna, a political strategist at the nonprofit Gen Z for Change, pleasantly surprised abortion rights advocates. The $1.3 million the group had raised by early Friday is more than 10 percent of what the National Network of Abortion Funds — which includes about 90 abortion funds in the United States and Mexico — distributed in an entire time. It’s also enough to fund thousands of abortions, which cost an average of $550 per service. That means “a bunch of people who just wouldn’t have had abortions now will,” said Lisa Fuentes, a senior research fellow at the Guttmacher Institute in New York who has studied reproductive health for 16 years. Olivia Julianna, who only uses her first and middle name due privacy concerns, started the fundraiser after an online exchange with Gaetz. When she criticized Gaetz for calling abortion rights activists “disgusting” and overweight at a political rally last week, the congresswoman fired back, posting her photo on Twitter next to a link to a news story that reported his insults. . Gaetz’s tweet has been shared hundreds of times and has sparked online attacks against Olivia Julianna. When reached for comment on his tweet and the fundraiser that followed, a spokesman for Gaetz said only that no amount of urging would change the United States’ new status as a “pro-life nation” after Roe v. Wade it was overturned last month. Meanwhile, donations continue to roll in and the hashtag “#ThanksMattGaetz” has been trending on Twitter. “When I originally held this fundraiser, I was hoping to raise a few thousand dollars,” Olivia Julianna said in a statement. “This move… has really left me in awe.” Gen Z is influencing the abortion debate — from TikTok Between July 2019 and June 2020, the National Network of Abortion Funds disbursed $9.4 million to women in need of financial assistance for the procedure. The group has also helped more than 80,000 people undergo otherwise financially burdensome procedures, it said. But “this is only 35% of the 229,510 calls our network received that year,” the group said on its website. “There is a huge unmet need,” said Fuentes, the reproductive health expert. The average abortion fee $550 it does not include the costs of travel, child care or a possible overnight hotel stay, he said.
