Friday, June 13, 2014

Claim that Gates Foundation Does Not Fund Abortion "An Outright Deception"


I am currently in Bogotá, Colombia where I spoke at one of Human Life International's REDESSVIDA conferences this week to train Catholic seminarians and clergy on pro-life issues. (You can see photos from this week on the HLI Facebook page.)

As you may recall, two years ago Melinda Gates, wife of Microsoft founder Bill Gates, kicked off her "No Controversy" campaign in London on the 100th anniversary of the first London eugenics conference. Ms. Gates and her partners pledged to raise billions of dollars to put women in developing countries on birth control. HLI responded by reminding Ms. Gates that contraceptives are indeed controversial for a number of reasons.

This past week, Ms. Gates tried to quiet the concerns of those questioning whether the Gates Foundation funds abortion in the work that they do, and has received some positive press for her statements.

I felt it was important to set the record straight, so I just released the following statement to the media. Please share it with your friends and family.

And please pray for me and for all of HLI's pro-life missionaries---and for Ms. Gates as well.

May God bless you.


Sincerely yours in Christ,
Father Shenan J. Boquet
President, Human Life International

 

Claim that Gates Foundation Does Not Fund Abortion "An Outright Deception"
Human Life International (HLI) President Father Shenan J. Boquet called the recent claim by Melinda Gates that her Foundation does not fund abortion "an outright deception" in comments released today. Father Boquet made the comments from Bogotá, Colombia where he spoke at an HLI-sponsored conference this week to train Catholic seminarians and clergy on pro-life issues. His full statement follows:

"Melinda Gates' claim that 'the Gates Foundation has decided not to fund abortion' should not be hailed as good news from pro-lifers, because it's an outright deception.

"The Gates Foundation has in the past and will continue to give tens of millions of dollars to the largest abortion providers in the world, including International Planned Parenthood Federation and Marie Stopes International. These large sums of money will undoubtedly expand the reach and influence of the abortion industry.

"And while Ms. Gates claims to only be focused on contraceptives, what is often not discussed in public about these drugs and devices---and certainly not disclosed to the women in the developing world who receive Ms. Gates' contraceptives---is their potential to cause abortions at the earliest stage of pregnancy. Conception can still, and often does, occur even when these methods are being used, and that new life in the womb is then destroyed due to their effects on a woman's body.

"The Gates Foundation and their partners have pledged to spend billions to push these abortion-causing drugs and devices onto poor women in Africa, Asia and Latin America who are already suffering and in need of genuine development aid. And as Human Life International's pro-life missionaries have seen first-hand in Africa, the methods Ms. Gates is promoting worldwide are not only killing preborn lives, but destroying women's health due to their dangerous, and sometimes deadly, side effects.

"If the Gates Foundation is really committed not to fund abortion as Ms. Gates says, she should immediately stop her multi-billion dollar effort to push abortifacients on impoverished women in the developing world."

Find this statement on HLI.org here.


Commentary

 
 
Watch this special message from Father Boquet about the March for Marriage in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, June 19. View Here...

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