In case there was any doubt that self-described “pro-life” activists care less about saving lives and more about limiting women’s reproductive choices, the issue appears to be settled.
When billionaire investor Warren Buffett donated $30 billion to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation this week, most people cheered at the single largest act of charitable giving ever. In addition to large-scale funding for libraries and education, the Gates Foundation has spent nearly $6 billion on global health programs, such as fighting malaria, HIV, and TB; providing vaccines and research to make them more effective; and spending hundreds of millions of dollars to improve maternal and newborn health in the developing world.
But some on the Right are decrying such generosity. WorldNetDaily warns that “Bill and Melinda Gates also have spent millions promoting abortion in their home state, having given nearly $2 million to Planned Parenthood of Central Washington and Planned Parenthood of Western Washington to fund abortion centers. The Gates Foundation also gave the Planned Parenthood Federation of Canada more than $1.3 million.” With Buffett’s donation, the Gates Foundation has assets of $60 billion, which means the Planned Parenthood contributions WorldNetDaily cites constitute 0.005% of the foundation’s potential giving.
Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the “pro-life” Susan B. Anthony List, calls the donation “tragic.” Father Thomas Euteneuer, president of Human Life International, concludes that “Warren Buffett's philanthropy aims at killing preborn children, not curing childhood disease; eliminating the poor, not poverty; and destroying the developing world, not aiding development.”
ProLifeBlogs grudgingly acknowledges that “The Gates Foundation does support many worthy causes in addition to organizations that encourage and enable the killing of unborn babies.”
