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Govt targets over £200 million for programmes that provide abortions and fund ‘pro-choice’ campaigns in Africa

The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) has launched a new initiative “to tackle gender inequality around the world” with the use of over £200 million of taxpayers’ money for programmes that provide abortions and fund ‘pro-choice’ campaigns in Africa. 

The Women and Girls Strategy was launched on International Women’s Day and up to £200 million of taxpayer money will be spent on the Women’s Integrated Sexual Health programme. The programme is implemented by international abortion providers MSI Reproductive Choices (previously Marie Stopes International) and International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF). 

A Government paper called ‘International Women and Girls Strategy 2023–2030‘ accompanying the launch of the initiative explains that one of its goals is to “prioritise the often-neglected issue of safe abortion”. 

The Government press release explains “this is the first international Women and Girls Strategy that brings together all the UK’s development and diplomacy work”. Previous initiatives, including the Department for International Development’s (DFID) ‘Strategic Vision for Gender Equality’ in 2018, also promoted abortion overseas.

A further £38 million for abortion promotion

In addition to the up to £200 million, some of which will be used for providing abortions overseas, a separate £38 million is being made available to the ‘Equality fund’ (£33 million) – a Canadian based activism group – and a South African advocacy group called ‘Gender Links’ (£5 million). 

The Equality fund offers grants to various grassroots organisations promoting various causes, including a campaign called “WE-Change”, which operates in the Caribbean and “has been working on revamping their abortion advocacy to focus on informing the public on abortions…”

‘Gender links’ campaigns throughout the south of Africa to promote abortion and/or expand existing abortion access. They have had abortion campaigns over the last 4 years in at least 13 countries including Botswana, Malawi, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.

Taxpayers’ money wasted

This Government commitment is the latest in a series to use taxpayers’ money to fund abortion overseas. In 2018, the Conservative Government pledged to spend £200 million on its Women’s Integrated Sexual Health programme. 

In 2019 the Secretary of State for International Development, Alok Sharma MP, announced to the UN that the Department for International Development (DFID) would be providing an additional £600 million of taxpayer money for “family planning”, which included funding abortions.

This pledge was the UK Government’s largest ever stand-alone spend of taxpayer money in this area and comes on top of the £1.1 billion already pledged over a 5-year period beginning in 2017.

Polling shows that there is little public support for taxpayers’ money being spent in this manner with 65% of the British population opposed to this money being used to fund abortions overseas.

Right To Life UK spokesperson Catherine Robinson said “The Government’s use of taxpayers’ money for overseas abortion is an outrage. Not only is there a cost of living crisis but abortion does nothing for women or their children. Our Government is continuing to perpetuate the lie that women’s flourishing is directly opposed to that of their own babies, and is promoting this lie in developing countries.”

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Help stop three major anti-life threats.

Dear reader,

Thanks to the hard work and dedication of people like you across the UK, the McArthur assisted suicide Bill in Scotland was defeated in March by 69 votes to 57.

Then, in April, the Leadbeater assisted suicide Bill fell in the House of Lords.

Many commentators thought both Bills would become law.

If that had happened, governments in England, Scotland and Wales would now be preparing to roll out assisted suicide services.

Over the coming decades, this would have led to the deaths of many thousands of vulnerable people.

But that is not what happened.

Because supporters like you acted, those Bills were stopped.

Because of you, many vulnerable lives have been saved.

These were two very significant victories. But sadly, they are not the last battles we face this year.

The new Parliamentary session begins this Wednesday. We now face three major threats.

  1. Attempts to bring back the Leadbeater assisted suicide Bill and bypass the House of Lords

    The assisted suicide lobby, led by Dignity in Dying, a multi-million-pound pressure group, has made it clear that it is going to attempt to bring back the Leadbeater assisted suicide Bill in the next parliamentary session.

    It then plans to use the Parliament Acts to bypass the House of Lords and force the Bill into law.

  2. Labour Government plans for a major expansion of abortion provision, including financial incentives for ‘lunch-hour’ abortions

    Under these plans, the Government would financially incentivise major abortion providers, BPAS and MSI Reproductive Choices, to provide ‘lunch-hour’ or ‘same-day’ abortions.

    ‘Lunch-hour’ abortion services are walk-in abortion services designed to fit into a woman’s lunch hour.

    Women facing an unplanned pregnancy need time, care and support, not a system that gives abortion clinics a financial incentive to rush them through consultations, scans and abortions on the same day.

    If these plans go ahead, many more lives are likely to be ended by abortion here in the UK.

  3. Extreme abortion up to birth proposals in Scotland

    In Scotland, plans are moving forward to introduce an extreme abortion up to birth law. This would go far beyond the abortion law change recently backed by the Lords for England and Wales.

    A review of abortion law in Scotland, commissioned by Humza Yousaf when he was Scottish First Minister, recommended that the Scottish Government scrap the current 24-week time limit – and abortion be available on social grounds, including for sex-selective purposes, right up to birth.

    The final plans are expected to be brought forward as a Government Bill in the new Scottish Parliament, which begins this Thursday.

If these three major threats succeed, thousands of vulnerable lives will be lost.

We cannot allow this to happen.

We can only defeat these three major threats with your help.

We ran our biggest campaigns ever to help defeat the assisted suicide Bills at Westminster and in Scotland.

That work has made a serious dent in our limited resources.

To cover this gap and ensure we can effectively defeat these three major threats in the coming months, we are aiming to raise at least £199,250 by midnight this Sunday (17 May 2026).

We are, therefore, appealing to you to please give as generously as you can.

Every donation, large or small, will make a crucial difference in saving the lives of the unborn and many others. Plus, if you are a UK taxpayer, £1 becomes £1.25 with Gift Aid at no extra cost to you.

By stopping these threats, YOU can save lives during this new Parliamentary session.

Will you donate now to help protect vulnerable lives from these three major threats?

EMERGENCY
APPEAL
to SAVE
lives

Help stop three major anti-life threats.

Help stop three major anti-life threats.