President Trump Ends Taxpayer Funding to Two Biggest Abortion Businesses in Africa

International   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   May 22, 2018   |   10:13AM   |   Washington, DC

Americans no longer are giving money to the two biggest abortion businesses in Africa, thanks to a 2017 Trump administration policy.

And it’s making a huge difference for life.

Marie Stopes International, a British-based abortion chain, and the International Planned Parenthood Federation received millions of USAID tax dollars under pro-abortion President Barack Obama to provide and advocate for abortions in Africa.

However, in 2017, President Donald Trump cut that funding under the Mexico City Policy, which prohibits tax dollars from funding international groups that provide or promote abortions.

Now, Marie Stopes programs in Burkina Faso are slated to close in June as a result of the cuts, Devidiscourse News reports.

The abortion chain’s budget for its Burkina Faso programs came entirely from U.S. tax dollars; it would have shut down sooner if the British government had not provided tax dollars to make up for the U.S. cuts, according to the report.

Marie Stopes leaders in Africa said they employed ten women in Burkina Faso to offer “advice on family planning and reproductive healthcare.” This almost certainly included abortion, even though killing unborn babies is illegal in many African countries.

Here’s more from the report:

MSI and the International Planned Parenthood Federation are among only four to reject the conditions of the [Mexico City Policy.] They offer abortion services, in accordance with local rules, and say it is the last resort in preventing unwanted or unsafe births.

USAID says 733 other NGOs still receive funding. But in Africa, MSI and IPPF are the two largest NGO providers of free contraception and family planning advice.

The NGOs say the contraceptive programmes are crucial in Burkina, where the fertility rate is 5.5 births per woman.

In some villages the MS Ladies operate from government centres, supplementing the limited services on offer. The same grant also pays for training for health workers in 80 government clinics.

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Abortion activists complain that the policy has been devastating for women in Africa, but the only real damage is to the abortion businesses of Marie Stopes and Planned Parenthood. Both could continue to receive USAID to provide contraception and life-saving health care; all they must do is agree to stop aborting unborn babies.

The Trump administration did not cut any foreign aid when it instituted the pro-life policy, and of the more than 700 groups that receive USAID, only four refused to comply. That is a compliance rate of 99.5 percent.

Previous news reports indicate that two of the four groups that refused to comply are International Planned Parenthood Federation and Marie Stopes International, two of the largest abortion businesses in the world.

In February, a U.S. government report noted that of the four groups that refused to comply, three previously received funds through USAID.

“USAID is currently working to transition the activities of those organizations to other partners while minimizing disruption of service,” the report stated.

The International Planned Parenthood Federation performed more than 1 million abortions in 2016, an increase of 13.5 percent over 2015, and received more than $27 million in U.S. government grants in 2015-2016.

Under the Obama administration, Marie Stopes International also received U.S. taxpayer funding. Like Planned Parenthood in America, Marie Stopes has a shoddy reputation, with one recent report showing about 400 botched abortions in a two-month period.