Contributed by Lauren Taylor 

Fair Fight Action, Stacey Abrams‘ voting rights organization, has donated more than $1 million to help fight medical debts in five states.

This organization created by Abrams, former Georgia gubernatorial candidate, and activist, has donated $1.34 million to the nonprofit organization RIP Medical Debt, according to a press release. This donation will go towards a debt originally totaling $212 million owed by 108,000 people across five states: Georgia, Louisiana, Arizona, Mississippi, and Alabama. This is the third-largest gift in RIP Medical Debt’s history.

RIP Medical Debt Says, “The more than 108,000 individuals will receive a letter in the coming days, contained in a yellow envelop, informing them that their debt has been relieved.” Abrams discusses her first-hand experience with medical costs in one statement, she also says, “For people of color, the working poor and middle-class families facing crushing costs, we hope to relieve the strain on desperate Americans and on hospitals struggling to remain open.”

Fair fight Action decided to focus its effort on the South this time around due to the fact medical debt is 30% higher in the South than in the North. The combined unpaid medical debt in America is now $141 billion – which doubles the estimates from earlier in this year.

The organization would like to promote full Medicaid expansion across the country to decrease the 72% of black households with debt and the 78% of households with a householder of Hispanic origin that carry debt.