New Planned Parenthood Fund Will Promote Abortions Worldwide, Bash Bush 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
March 10, 2006
New York, NY (LifeNews.com) — President George W. Bush’s pro-life policy prohibiting the taxpayer funding of groups that perform or promote abortions in other nations is under fire again from abortion advocates. Now they have decided to create a new worldwide fund to promote supposedly "safe" abortions in nations where abortion is illegal.
On the first day President Bush took office in 2001, he reinstituted the Mexico City Policy first put in place by President Reagan and revoked by President Clinton. Bush later expanded the policy to ensure that no State Department monies were used to promote or perform abortions.
Since then, abortion advocates have bashed the policy because they have been denied the use of federal funds to lobby other nation’s to change their pro-life laws.
Now, the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) has created a new fund meant to promote legalized abortion in countries, such as those in Africa and South America, where abortion is illegal.
The abortion business had already enticed one nation to contribute millions of dollars to get it off the ground.
Norway’s Minister of International Development Erik Solheim has pledged $1.5 million annually to build the IPFF bank account.
“Because this is an urgent matter, we will do our utmost to speed up the establishment of the fund. Norway’s support will amount to at least NOK 10 million (about USD 1.5 million) per year from 2007, or perhaps even from 2006 if the fund is established in time,” Solheim told Norwegian press.
“There is no reason to hide that our position on this matter is the opposite of that of President Bush and his administration," Solheim added.
Solheim explained that norway will work with Planned Parenthood "to secure women’s reproductive health and to promote the decriminalisation of abortion."
Meanwhile, in the U.S., abortion advocates are also putting forward new legislation in Congress. Introduced by Democrat Rep. Betty McCollum and Republican Jim Ramstad, both Republicans, it would partially counteract Bush’s executive order.
The bill, HR 4188, would spend $600 million next year on family planning efforts, including contraception and anti-AIDS activities, though the money could not be used to promote or perform abortions.
Members of the pro-abortion Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice support the effort and claim the money would reduce the number of abortions.
Rabbi Scott Sperling, director of the Union for Reform Judaism Mid-Atlantic Council, told the Cybercast News Service, "For over 40 years, the United States has included family planning services as part of the aid we provide in the developing world."
Earlier this year, Bush reduced the amount of money the U.S. spends on family planning by $79 million from the $436 million appropriated for 2006. His 2007 budget calls for only $357 million.
