As Americans grapple with the anticipated effects of Donald Trump’s impending presidency, some are taking action with their wallets. Reuters reports that the Planned Parenthood Federation of America has seen a spike in donations since Election Day, with nearly 80,000 new gifts.
One of those donations came from Katy Perry, a devoted supporter of Hillary Clinton, who posted her donation of $10,000 to Instagram over the weekend. “It’s time to turn words into action,” she wrote. “There are so many steps to take, but my first vow is to support organizations that may have their funding support taken from them in the future by the government.” Perry noted that she made the gift for her teenage self, who visited Planned Parenthood clinics in California to supplement what little sex education she got during her “sheltered upbringing.” “I had no idea how things worked down there,” she wrote.
Reuters also reports that, as Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards told Rachel Maddow the day after the election, some Planned Parenthood clinics are fielding surges of appointment requests from women eager to secure long-term birth control solutions before Trump takes office. By undoing Obamacare, Trump could take away the guaranteed contraception coverage women have enjoyed under the Affordable Care Act. If he and Vice President–elect Mike Pence succeed in their radical plans to dismantle protections for reproductive health care, certain kinds of birth control may face a federal ban.
By supporting Planned Parenthood and other advocates for reproductive health care, donors are doing what little they can to channel their post-election anxiety and fear into tangible efforts to resist what Trump has planned. And Planned Parenthood isn’t the only beneficiary of Trump-induced spending from progressives. The ACLU reported on Twitter on Monday that in the week since the election, it’s seen “the greatest outpouring of support” in its history, “greater than the days after 9/11.”
For our part, Slate has compiled 10 ways to build a better country in spite of Trump.
