Luxembourg, Finland, Canada and Cape Verde have joined in the initiative led by Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark – countries wishing “to off-set the ban on allocating Federal funding to foreign NGOs supporting abortion, announced by American President Donald Trump”.
In fact, Dutch Minister for International Trade, Co-operation and Development, Lilianne Ploumen, has proposed to create, with the support of Belgium and Denmark, “a fund supported by Europeans either nationally or via European Institution Funding”. This fund “will therefore prevent women and girls from being abandoned because they must be able to decide for themselves whether they want to have children, with whom and when”. She added that, “the immense void created by the withdrawal of US finance can only be filled by a robust response from governments, co-operating organisations and individual donors”.
The loss generated by the American decision is estimated to amount to €600 million over the four-year term of office. Vice-President, Mike Pence, announced that these funds would be devoted “to improving care for women during their pregnancy and maternity”.
Yesterday, Swedish Prime Minister, Isabella Lovin, announced that an international donor conference, “She decides”, would be held in Brussels on 2 March to kick-start the fund-raising initiative to support NGOs affected by this decision. An initial contribution of 10 million Euros was received from the Netherlands.
AFP ( 09/02/2017) ; Reuters (09/02/2017) ; Institut Européen de Bioéthique (09/02/2017)