Norwegian government leaders promised to give $10 million to a new global abortion fund this week after U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order prohibiting U.S. taxpayer funding to groups that promote or perform abortions overseas.
Reuters reports Norway Prime Minister Erna Solberg said her country will dedicate 85 million crowns ($10 million) to support abortions world-wide.
“At a time when this agenda has come under pressure, a joint effort is particularly important,” she said in a statement.
Norway joins a growing list of countries that have pledged money for abortions world-wide.
After Trump’s order in January, lawmakers in the Netherlands — one of the few countries where the barbaric practice of child euthanasia is legal, in addition to abortion – proposed the creation of a new global abortion fund to make up for the money the U.S. no longer will provide.
At least nine countries are involved in the new global abortion fund: the Netherlands, Norway, Canada, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Luxembourg, Finland and Cape Verde, Reuters reported previously. Organizers said representatives from 50 countries have been invited to participate.
Three of the countries, the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark, also promised a combined 30 million euros ($32 million) for abortions world-wide, the report states. The country’s leaders estimate they will need to make up $600 million in lost U.S. contributions during the next four years.
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They plan to meet on March 2 to discuss the creation of the abortion fund.
Last week, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said her country also will give 9.5 million Australian dollars (about $7.3 million) to the International Planned Parenthood Federation, one of the abortion groups that no longer will receive U.S. tax dollars.
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 President Barack Obama rescinded it during his first week in office.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.
