Melinda Gates, a Catholic, to give millions to fund abortion throughout the world

Melinda French Gates shakes hands with French President Emmanuel Macron after a meeting at the Elysee Palace on June 23, 2023. / Credit: LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP via Getty Images

CNA Staff, Jun 4, 2024 / 15:22 pm (CNA).

Melinda Gates’ high-dollar funding of abortion throughout the world offers what pro-life leaders say is a “grim reminder” of what pro-life advocates are up against in their fight for the unborn. 

Gates, who has written fondly about her Catholic upbringing, said last week she is giving multimillion-dollar donations to abortion-supporting groups. Among the richest people in the world, she reportedly has a net worth of about $11 billion.

The philanthropist, married to mega-billionaire Bill Gates from 1994 to 2021, funds numerous campaigns and causes through Pivotal Ventures, which she founded in 2015. The philanthropist will reportedly pour tens of millions of dollars into Pivotal to promote abortion around the world. 

A foundation spokesman told the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, that Pivotal “already funds organizations working across the reproductive health continuum, and this new commitment will include groups working on reproductive rights.”

Pro-life leaders, meanwhile, decried Gates’ new abortion pledge as a sign of the pro-abortion lobby’s wide reach and influence.

“Melinda French Gates could do much to help women and their preborn children on the national — and even international — level, yet she has decided instead to pour money into the abortion industry that already makes billions of dollars by taking the lives of innocent preborn children,” Carol Tobias, president of the National Right to Life Committee, told the Register.

“Tragically, this kind of ‘help’ destroys lives and damages women,” Tobias said.

Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America and Students for Life Action, told the Register that the modern pro-life movement regularly “relives the story of David and Goliath, as we are outspent everywhere by financial giants.” 

“For example, consider that the almost $700 million that our federal government wastes on Planned Parenthood allows them to market themselves to more women and to push a culture of death by intentional abortion,” Hawkins said.

“But the beauty of a righteous cause is knowing that it’s not up to us alone, and that is our true strength, though all donations are welcome,” she said.

Tobias agreed that the pro-abortion movement is well-funded compared with the pro-life cause. 

There “has always been a funding disparity between those seeking to protect innocent human life and those wanting to promote the killing of preborn children,” she told the Register. 

“The additional funds brought to the table by French Gates,” she argued, “will be added to an already overflowing pool.”

“Will it make our task more difficult? Sure, but pro-lifers are determined optimists. We’ll continue to speak up for those who have no voice.”

In an op-ed in the New York Times last month, Gates said that the Supreme Court’s 2022 repeal of Roe v. Wade led her to “feel compelled to support reproductive rights here at home.”

“For too long, a lack of money has forced organizations fighting for women’s rights into a defensive posture while the enemies of progress play offense,” she claimed. “I want to help even the match.”

Melanie Israel, a visiting fellow with the Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Life, Religion, and Family at the Heritage Foundation, told the Register that Gates’ high-level abortion funding “is a grim reminder that the pro-life movement is up against a powerful cabal of well-funded abortion activists.”

“An effective, meaningful way to counter the culture of death is to find your local pregnancy resource center and offer a helping hand, financial support, or both,” Israel said.