Pro-Abortion Group Forced to Return Illegal Grant From Billionaire Activist George Soros

International   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   Apr 7, 2017   |   11:17AM   |   Dublin, Ireland

An Irish pro-abortion group returned $25,000 to American billionaire George Soros’s foundation recently after it was exposed as a violation of a rule about political donations.

The Irish government’s Standards in Public Office began asking questions of pro-abortion groups last year after a leaked document from Soros’s Open Society Foundation revealed plans to push Ireland and other countries to legalize abortion, the Catholic News Agency reports. Ireland prohibits groups from receiving donations larger than 100 Euros from foreign groups for political purposes.

The Abortion Rights Campaign agreed to return the grant money in November, though it continues to claim the money was not for political purposes, according to The Irish Catholic.

The Eighth Amendment to the Irish Constitution protects unborn babies’ right to life and prohibits abortions except when the mother’s life is in jeopardy. Pro-lifers estimate that the amendment has saved approximately 100,000 unborn babies’ lives from abortion. However, abortion activists throughout the world have been putting intense pressure on Ireland to repeal its Eighth Amendment and legalize abortion on demand.

The investigation into foreign funds began last summer after a leaked document from Soros’s Open Society Foundations confirmed that the American billionaire is using his fortune to push abortion on Ireland, Mexico and other pro-life countries, CNA reported.

In reference to Ireland, the document said, “With one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the world, a win there could impact other strongly Catholic countries in Europe, such as Poland, and provide much needed proof that change is possible, even in highly conservative places.”

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The document prompted the Irish Standards Public Office to begin asking questions of abortion groups working in the country. The public commission requested documents from several abortion groups, but the Abortion Rights Campaign stalled in providing its documents until late 2016 when the commission threatened to report the campaign to the police, according to CNA.

The documents from the Abortion Rights Campaign showed the pro-abortion group had applied for and received a $25,000 grant from Soros’s Open Society Foundation.

The pro-abortion group told investigators that the grant money would “fund educational and stigma-busting projects,” but its grant application listed political motives.

On the application, the Abortion Rights Campaign wrote that funding would go toward the “strategic goal of garnering support for repeal of the Eighth Amendment.”

This being exposed, the pro-abortion group agreed to return the grant.

Cora Sherlock, a spokesperson for the Pro Life Campaign in Ireland, told CNA she suspects there is more Soros money in Ireland that should be returned.

“A concern I would have is that international pro-abortion foundations have already contributed vast sums of money to ‘Repeal the Eighth’ groups in Ireland and it just so happens that some of the Soros funding has come to light under the DC Leaks exposé,” she said. “The sums of money given by the Open Society Foundations alone to Amnesty Ireland and the Irish Family Planning Association are far from insignificant. Hundreds of thousands of Euro have been transferred to these groups and I would fear this is the tip of the iceberg.”

Ireland is facing global pressure from the United Nations and some of the world’s richest men to legalize abortion on demand.

In 2015, Life Institute reported another American billionaire named Chuck Feeney also gave about $18 million to Irish pro-abortion groups through his foundation. Bill Gates and the Ford Foundation also reportedly gave millions of dollars to the Centre for Reproductive Rights, which also is pushing abortion in Ireland, according to Life Institute.

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