US election 2016: 'Mike Pence' gifts to Planned Parenthood surge
- Published
Donations to US family planning organisation Planned Parenthood in the name of Vice President-elect Mike Pence have surged.
Donald Trump's running mate, a long-time opponent of Planned Parenthood, will be sent a gift certificate for every donation.
The campaign began in 2011 when as an Indiana congressman he introduced several anti-abortion measures.
They included the first bill to strip the provider of all federal funding.
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In March this year, as Indiana governor, Mr Pence signed an anti-abortion bill that is seen as one of the most restrictive in the US, barring abortion in Indiana on the basis of disability, gender or race of the foetus.
Parts of that law were blocked by the courts, but not until after a social media backlash which saw women phoning or tweeting Mr Pence details about their menstrual cycles under the hash tag #periodsforpence.
There had already been a significant rise in gifts to the country's biggest abortion provider in the wake of Mr Trump's election last week.
But then over the weekend, many women went on social media to say they had made a donation in Mike Pence's name.
Mike Pence's anti-abortion stance mirrors that of President-elect Trump, who wants to cut funding to Planned Parenthood, and who has in the past said women should be punished for undergoing an abortion if it were made illegal, though he later withdrew the statement.
Planned Parenthood hasn't commented in detail on the post-election trend of donating in Mr Pence's honour.
But the organisation said on social media they had been "blown away by the support" and acknowledged that many people are donating in both Mike Pence's and Hillary Clinton's names.
The vice president-elect has so far not commented on being the nominal donor of thousands of dollars to the organisation.