Critics have hit out at the UK Government for its plans to force an abortion programme into “countries which typically have great respect for life in the womb”.
Plans to spend £42 million of aid money on the programme funding overseas abortion were unveiled on Monday.
International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt announced that the programme will work alongside abortion giants Marie Stopes and Planned Parenthood.
Abortion providers
The programme will be part of the Government’s global sexual reproductive health rights (SRHR) strategy, which claims to protect women and offer ‘safe’ abortions.
Penny Mordaunt, an MP who voted against a ban on sex-selective abortion in 2015, said the money was to be given directly to the abortion providers.
“A new £42 million programme looking at SRHR will support two consortia of NGO partners on this theme, and I am pleased to announce that these will be led by Marie Stopes International and the International Planned Parenthood Federation.”
Breathtaking irony
Political commentator Tim Montgomerie said instead of seeking to promote abortion across the world, aid money “should be used to save life”.
John Deighan, Deputy CEO of Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), said: “The irony of Penny Mordaunt’s euphemisms about helping women is breathtaking.
“It is in reality an endeavour to expand abortion at a time when it is increasingly recognised that abortion has been used not only to coerce women to destroy their own children but it has been a particular tool for depleting the world of females.”
SPUC estimates that around 160 million girls have been killed via sex-selective abortion.
Imposing views
Mr Deighan added that the money “will be used to fund the ongoing cultural imperialism of developing countries” and force abortion into cultures that do not want it.
Earlier this year, a documentary called Strings Attached revealed the extent of interference from Western governments pushing for abortion in Africa.
Presenter Obianuju Ekeocha exposed how nations such as the UK and Canada are involved in what she called a form of ‘ideological colonisation’ – imposing their own views and values on poorer nations which don’t share them.
She said: “Most of the African nations do not have legal abortions because they don’t want legal abortion.”