US$200m pledged for family planning
Print Edition
NATIONS and philanthropists pledged close to US$200 million yesterday for family planning at an international conference that aimed to make up for the gap left by President Donald Trump’s ban on US funding to groups linked to abortion.
Some 50 governments attended the hastily convened one-day conference in Brussels and the funding drive was boosted by Sweden, Canada and Finland each promising 20 million euros (US$21 million). Private donors like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation provided tens of millions more.
Conference host and Belgian Deputy Premier Alexander De Croo said one anonymous US donor committed US$50 million, pushing the total up to a provisional 181 million euros
One of Trump’s first acts as president was to withhold an estimated half billion dollars a year in funding from international groups that perform abortions or provide information about them. The Trump administration said the ban is necessary because it doesn’t want to provide funds for something it considers morally wrong.
Officials in many European nations and around the world say the move just hurts women and girls who need family planning the most and will lead to more abortions, not less.
“The purely ideological decision of one country” can push women and girls back “into the Dark Ages,” said De Croo.
Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands had already committed to contributing at least 10 million euros each.
African and Asian countries were also at the conference, as well as officials from the European Union and the United Nations and private donors.
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