Australia will chip in millions of dollars to support Planned Parenthood’s abortion work world-wide, government leaders announced this week.
DevEx reports Australia is the latest country to join a global pro-abortion effort in response to President Donald Trump reinstating the Mexico City Policy, which prohibits U.S. taxpayer funding to groups that promote or perform abortions overseas.
At least eight other countries are creating a new global abortion fund together to to make up for the money the U.S. no longer provides. Lawmakers in the Netherlands — one of the few countries where the barbaric practice of child euthanasia is legal, in addition to abortion – proposed the abortion fund in January.
On Wednesday, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said her country will give 9.5 million Australian dollars (about $7.5 million) to the International Planned Parenthood Federation, one of the abortion groups that no longer will receive U.S. tax dollars. She made the announcement during the 2017 Australasian Aid Conference in Canberra, claiming the money will support women and girls world-wide, according to the report.
“It’s the right thing to do, it’s a matter of principle,” Bishop said. “It’s also the smart thing to do as improving gender equality promotes economic prosperity.”
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Here’s more from the report:
“Such needs often increase during disasters, so Australia supports access to sexual and reproductive health services, including safe birthing, access to contraception and services for victims of rape during times of crisis,” Bishop said. “So far through the SPRINT program, for sexual and reproductive health services in crisis and post-crisis settings, we’ve helped over 890,000 people during humanitarian crises including in Fiji, Nepal, Philippines and elsewhere.”
Calling the SPRINT program “essential” and one that saves lives and rebuilds communities, Bishop’s announcement of a further $9.5 million in funding to the IPPF allows a continuation of this work over the next three year and cements Australia’s support for sexual and reproductive health in the aid program. Since 2007, Australia has contributed $26.3 million Australian dollars ($20.2 million) to support SPRINT.
Other countries’ leaders plan to meet on March 2 to organize a new global abortion fund. Currently, the countries include the Netherlands, Canada, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Luxembourg, Finland and Cape Verde, Reuters reported last week. Organizers said representatives from 50 countries have been invited.
Three of the countries, the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark, already promised a combined 30 million euros ($32 million) for abortions world-wide, the report states.
No one knows exactly how many unborn babies are aborted every year across the world. Some research groups put the number at about 50 million, but others say the number likely is smaller. It also is not clear how many of those unborn babies were killed in abortions with U.S. taxpayer dollars during the Obama administration.
As LifeNews.com reported, the Mexico City Policy, which Trump reinstated on Jan. 23 by executive order, also was in place during the entirety of the George W. Bush administration. President Barack Obama rescinded it during his first week in office.
Named for a 1984 population conference where President Ronald Reagan initially announced it, the Mexico City Policy made it so family planning funds could go only to groups that agree to not do abortions or lobby foreign nations to overturn their pro-life laws.
The policy does not stop non-abortion international assistance. It ensures U.S. foreign aid will continue to go to health care and humanitarian relief in the millions of dollars. It just will not subsidize abortion overseas.
When Trump signed the order to restore the policy, pro-life advocates were delighted that the International Planned Parenthood, Marie Stopes International and other abortion groups would no longer receive taxpayer dollars to promote or perform abortions.
Further analysis of Trump’s executive order confirms that the president also defunded the pro-abortion United Nations agency.
Trump updated the Mexico City Policy by directing the Secretary of State to implement a plan that expands the policy across all global health assistance funding. This means taxpayer dollars will not support organizations that promote or participate in the management of a coercive abortion program — like China’s two-child policy that includes forced abortions.
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), for example, is one such organization, with a long history of supporting China’s population control regime.
