The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation committed $2.1 billion to gender equity initiatives — including $1.4 billion for “family planning.”
The nonprofit will also devote $650 million to female economic empowerment and $230 million to women’s leadership programs. The news comes two months after Bill and Melinda Gates filed for divorce and days after trustee Warren Buffett stepped down from the Gates Foundation.
According to the nonprofit’s press release:
As part of the Generation Equality Forum convened by UN Women and co-hosted by the governments of Mexico and France, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today announced a commitment of $2.1 billion over the next five years to advance women’s economic empowerment, strengthen women and girls’ health and family planning, and accelerate women’s leadership.
This reaffirms and expands the foundation’s commitment to family planning and women’s health, with a focus on increasing options and access to contraceptives and support for a network of family planning partners, including UNFPA Supplies Partnership, Family Planning 2030, the Global Financing Facility, and the new Shaping Equitable Market Access for Reproductive Health initiative.
“Women and girls already faced unique barriers to their full participation in social and economic life, and the latest data show that the pandemic has only sharpened gender disparities,” remarked Mark Suzman, CEO of the Gates Foundation, in the statement. “Each data point represents a woman fighting for a better future, and this funding reflects our longstanding commitment to support all women in their fight for a fairer and more equal world.”
In 2012, the Gates Foundation committed $1 billion to “help reach the goal of providing 120 million additional women with contraceptives, information, and services by 2020.” The organization has donated millions to Planned Parenthood chapters across the globe.
President Biden’s most recent budget proposal did not include the Hyde Amendment — a statute that has prevented federal taxpayer dollars from bankrolling abortions for the last four decades. Before lawmakers enacted the Hyde Amendment, federal funds paid for the deaths of 300,000 preborn babies each year.
According to the most recent annual report from Planned Parenthood — which carries out roughly one-third of abortions in the United States — the organization killed 354,871 babies in the past year. Planned Parenthood also extended its efforts to promulgate transgender hormone treatment and LGBTQ “sexuality education” for public schools.
The organization stresses that it also provides services unrelated to abortion. Therefore, despite the presence of the Hyde Amendment, taxpayer dollars accounted for $618.1 million of Planned Parenthood’s $1.641 billion in revenues — implying that federal funds composed nearly 38% of the organization’s income.