UK taxpayers are to provide nearly £9 million to a huge international abortion group which has links to a beleaguered US abortion provider.
In the US, Planned Parenthood has been rocked by scandals involving offering abortion services to pimps of underage prostitutes and taking donations specifically restricted to the abortions of black babies.
Now it has been revealed that the UK Government is to provide millions of pounds to the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), which has links to the US group.
Ethos
Speaking last month Secretary of State for International Development Andrew Mitchell told the House of Commons his department would provide £8.6m to IPPF in 2011-12.
Mr Mitchell said his department does not classify how much of the money it provides goes on abortions.
The money will be provided through a financial arrangement used to support groups which “share a common ethos and vision” with the UK Government’s Department for International Development (DFID).
Committed
It has also emerged recently that the Government is providing more than £700,000 to another abortion provider – Marie Stopes International (MSI).
Speaking last month for the Government, Earl Howe said it was “committed” to providing over £783,000 from 2010 to 2014 to MSI towards work in Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh.
Earl Howe said MSI was using the funds to “raise awareness and to provide access to sexual and reproductive health information and family planning supplies and to improve maternal health”.
But a pro-life group says the term “sexual and reproductive health and rights” is “the pro-abortion lobby’s euphemism for abortion on demand”.
Suspicion
Earlier this year news broke of a US Planned Parenthood employee coaching a man posing as a sex trafficker about abortion services for underage prostitutes.
The revelations came in a video that shows two people, posing as a pimp and a prostitute, seeking access to abortions, contraceptives and tests for sexually transmitted infections for their prostitutes as young as 14.
The secret footage appears to show the manager of a New Jersey branch of Planned Parenthood advising the couple on how the girls can access such services without attracting suspicion. The manager was later fired.
Understandable
In 2008 undercover phone calls revealed staff at Planned Parenthood expressing an interest in taking donations for aborting specifically black babies.
In one example a caller posing as a donor proclaimed “the less black kids out there the better”.
The response from the Planned Parenthood worker was “understandable, understandable”.
The Planned Parenthood employee added: “Excuse my hesitation, this is the first time I’ve had a donor call and make this kind of request, so I’m excited and want to make sure I don’t leave anything out.”
Planned Parenthood of Idaho apologised for the comments made by its staff, calling the conversation “offensive”.