{"id":249994,"date":"2021-07-28T12:37:21","date_gmt":"2021-07-28T17:37:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=249994"},"modified":"2023-11-14T20:07:08","modified_gmt":"2023-11-15T02:07:08","slug":"ippf-sue-uk-gov-cuts-abortion-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/ippf-sue-uk-gov-cuts-abortion-funding\/","title":{"rendered":"International Planned Parenthood plans to sue UK government for cuts to abortion funding"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

(Right to Life UK<\/a>)\u00a0The International Planned Parenthood Foundation (IPPF) has announced<\/a> plans to launch legal action against the UK Government regarding its decision to cut its foreign aid budget, which includes funding abortions in developing countries.<\/p>\n

On 13 July, MPs voted<\/a> 333 to 298 in favour of cutting overseas aid from 0.7 to 0.5 per cent of national income.<\/p>\n

The UK Government\u2019s Women\u2019s Integrated Sexual Health programme (WISH), which works with abortion providers MSI Reproductive Choices (formerly Marie Stopes International) and International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), will receive zero funding in the coming year. IPPF will lose an estimated \u00a372m<\/a> of UK taxpayer funding as a result of these new cuts.<\/p>\n

This follows the UK Government\u2019s announcement<\/a> in April that it will pledge \u00a323m to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) projects this year, as opposed to the initially pledged figure of \u00a3154m.<\/p>\n

In November 2020, Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced his intention to reduce the UK\u2019s commitment of foreign aid spending<\/a>from 0.7% to 0.5% of national income, as a result of the financial pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic, and has insisted the cuts are temporary.<\/p>\n

The decision was made following an Independent Commission for Aid Impact report<\/a> that condemned the UK Government for favouring overseas aid spending on family planning, which includes the provision of contraception and abortion services, at the expense of strengthening the delivery of quality maternal care programmes.<\/p>\n

The cut to spending follows years<\/a> of successive Conservative Governments making large increases in the amount of taxpayer money they contribute to organisations that provide abortion.<\/p>\n

In September 2019, the Conservative Government provided<\/a> an additional \u00a3600 million of taxpayer money for overseas \u201cfamily planning\u201d, which included<\/a> funding abortions. The pledge was the UK Government\u2019s largest ever<\/a> stand-alone spend of taxpayer money in this area and came on top of the \u00a31.1 billion already pledged over a 5-year period beginning in 2017.<\/p>\n

Polling from Savant ComRes<\/a> shows that 65% of the British population are opposed to taxpayer money being used to fund abortions overseas.<\/p>\n

IPPF claims<\/a> that the government\u2019s move to reduce aid spending without overhauling the International Development Act 2015<\/a> is unlawful, and have alerted the UK Government to its plans to push for an urgent judicial review of their decision to terminate the group\u2019s funding unless the Government rolls back on the move.<\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0Shock claim: International Planned Parenthood hired prostitutes for donors using foreign aid<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

A track record of scandal and exploitation<\/strong><\/p>\n

The UK Government was the single largest donor to IPPF in 2019, giving \u00a346,616,000 to the organisation. It also receives assistance<\/a> from the UNFPA, which UK funding contributes to.<\/p>\n

In 2017<\/a>, the US withdrew UNFPA funding after a state department investigation found evidence that the agency facilitates programmes of involuntary abortion and sterilisation in China.<\/p>\n

In 2019<\/a>, the UK\u2019s then Department for International Development drew criticism for providing IPPF with \u00a3132 million in funding<\/a>, despite the charity being under investigation after multiple accusations of sexual misconduct and fraud were made against the charity\u2019s Africa regional director, accusations which have not been investigated.<\/p>\n

The then Africa regional director, Lucien Kouakou, was reportedly dismissed in November 2018 after allegations of fraud and sexual misconduct were made against him. Kouakou then made a series of allegations that the charity had hired<\/a> prostitutes for staff, donors and guests at official functions.<\/p>\n

Many<\/a> of the women and men involved in prostitution in Africa are illegally sex trafficked or forced into it due to poverty, including many underage<\/a> persons.<\/p>\n

The Kenyan Government made IPPF aware of \u2018serious allegations\u2019<\/a> against Kouakou and other officials six years prior to the 2018 investigation, but no action was taken.<\/p>\n

In 2019, the Mail on Sunday received documents<\/a> revealing a wide range of allegations including accusations that Senior IPPF officials took tens of thousands of pounds in expenses for attending meetings that never took place in Senegal, Ivory Coast and Togo. One senior manager received \u00a391,000 and \u00a392,400 in cash for \u2018expenses\u2019 at two of these meetings;Fraud such as spending \u00a317,000 for translation services from a fake firm in Senegal and \u00a315,600 on fees for schools in Ghana that did not exist. \u2018Malpractice\u2019 concerns also arose regarding a \u00a31.04 million purchase of less than an acre of \u2018swampland\u2019. There were too, Allegations that Kouakou sent a \u2018witch porn\u2019 video featuring a snake and naked woman to a senior female staff member to intimidate her.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson, said: \u201cThese significant cuts to such a notoriously corrupt abortion provider such as IPPF is most welcome. However, it remains a scandal that the UK Government is using taxpayers\u2019 money in this way to begin with. That a single penny of our taxes goes towards ending the lives of children in the womb anywhere in the world is a gross misuse of our money and abuse of government powers\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis move will likely be welcomed by the British public too, 65% of whom have stated they are opposed to their taxes being used to fund overseas abortions\u201d.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Note: This article was published at Right to Life UK<\/a> and is reprinted here with permission.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cLike\u201d Live Action News on Facebook<\/a>\u00a0for more pro-life news and commentary!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Right to Life UK)\u00a0The International Planned Parenthood Foundation (IPPF) has announced plans to launch legal action against the UK Government regarding its decision to cut its foreign aid budget, which includes funding abortions in developing countries. On 13 July, MPs voted 333 to 298 in favour of cutting overseas aid from 0.7 to 0.5 per […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":669,"featured_media":222120,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[7077,5,4],"tags":[1154,2707,11431,10214,11432,126,1060,776,450],"yoast_head":"\nInternational Planned Parenthood plans to sue UK government for cuts to abortion funding<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"IPPF will lose an estimated \u00a372m of UK taxpayer funding as a result of cuts and the UK will pledge over \u00a3100m less to the United Nations Population Fund.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/righttolife.org.uk\/news\/international-planned-parenthood-plan-to-sue-uk-govt-for-cuts-to-abortion-funding\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" 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