The billionaire philanthropist commits $200 million to "reproductive freedom," among other causes.
For years, Melinda French Gates, who identifies as Catholic, said she struggled to view abortion as a public policy issue and that she would not give money to the foundation she helped lead with her former husband, Bill.
That struggle appears to be over.
Ms. Gates, who has written fondly about her Catholic upbringing, said this week she is making multi-million dollar donations to groups supporting abortion.
The May 28 announcement saddened abortion opponents.
"Melinda French Gates could do a lot to help women and their unborn children nationally, even internationally, but she has decided to give money to the abortion industry that already makes billions of dollars taking the lives of innocent unborn children," Carol Tobias, president of the National Right to Life Committee, told the Register.
Tragically, this kind of aid destroys lives and harms women.
Ms. Gates, a major donor and proponent of better access to oral contraceptives worldwide, now plans to give tens of millions of dollars to also support abortion, through Pivotal Ventures, a foundation she created in 2015.
The Register asked the foundation to comment on why it changed its rhetoric on abortion and how it engages with Catholic teaching on abortion.
A spokesperson for Pivotal Ventures responded by email:
"Melinda’s focus on women’s power and influence has not changed. She believes health is a critical lever for enabling women to exercise their full power in society. Pivotal already funds organizations working across the reproductive health continuum, and this new commitment will include groups working on reproductive rights."
Melinda Gates and Catholicism
The word "Catholic" appears in the second sentence of Melinda Gates' 2019 book, The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World.
After high school at Ursuline Academy – to which she has since given multi-million dollar grants – Melinda Gates majored in computer science at Duke University, where she also earned a master's degree in business administration.
Her first job out of school, in 1987, was at Microsoft. It was there she met the company's co-founder, Bill Gates, who was raised in the Congregationalist church. They married in 1994 and had three children.
"On a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean, at the twelfth tee of a golf course, Bill and Melinda exchanged their vows. Melinda, a devout Catholic, wanted a religious wedding. At the end of the short Catholic ceremony, Bill slipped the wedding band on Melinda’s finger," writes Jeanne M. Lisinski in her 2009 book, Bill Gates: Entrepreneur and Philanthropist.
Nearly twenty-five years after their marriage, in October 2019, Melinda Gates initiated divorce proceedings against Bill Gates, coinciding with the New York Times revealing that Bill Gates had had several meetings with Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender, after his conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor. The official divorce announcement was made in May 2021.
Melinda remained a member of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation after the divorce, but she announced two weeks ago, on May 13, that she would leave the foundation on June 7, to focus on the Pivotal Ventures Foundation.
Forbes estimates Melinda Gates' net worth at $11 billion. (Bill's, according to Forbes, is about $128 billion).
A Lot of Money
At least six of the 16 non-profit organizations to which Melinda Gates is giving a total of about $200 million through Pivotal Ventures explicitly advocate for abortion. At least one of them helps fund abortions.
The new grants from Bill Gates aim to "strengthen the work of organizations fighting in the United States to advance women's power and protect their rights, including reproductive freedom," the Bill Gates foundation announced earlier this week.
This money is part of the billion dollars that Mr. Gates plans to give "to advance women's power worldwide," according to the foundation's website.
Among the beneficiaries of Mr. Gates' largesse who support abortion are:
- The Center for Reproductive Rights:
- A legal advocacy organization based in New York and founded in 1992.
- Advocates for abortion-friendly laws in Latin America, Europe, Asia, and the United States.
- The organization reported, for its fiscal year ending June 30, 2022, gross revenues of approximately $66.8 million, according to its IRS Form 990.
- The Collaborative for Gender + Reproductive Equity:
- Founded in 2018 in New York by the David & Lucile Packard Foundation.
- Provides money to other organizations.
- The collaborative was founded "to bring fresh money and new donors to work on gender equity and reproductive equity" and to prevent contraception and abortion from being separated "from other gender equity issues, whether it's childcare, paid leave, pay equity, or LGBTQ rights," according to a March 2023 interview.
- The National Women's Law Center:
- A legal advocacy organization headquartered in Washington, D.C.
- Its website includes a homepage with the title "Abortion Always."
- The law center reported gross revenues of approximately $25 million for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2022.
- Collective Future Fund:
- A feminist organization founded in 2020 that gives money to other organizations.
- Among the recipients of its grants is the National Network of Abortion Funds, which funds abortions.
- In July 2020, the Collective Future Fund received support from Mackenzie Scott, the ex-wife of billionaire Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.
- Ms. Foundation for Women:
- An organization founded in 1972 by Gloria Steinem and several other women.
- Advocates for abortion, among other things, through grants and other types of support.
- The foundation reported, for its fiscal year ending June 30, 2022, gross revenues of approximately $26 million.
Melinda and Contraception
Melinda Gates' philanthropy emphasizes contraception as a means to improve women's health, wealth, and independence. She considers oral contraceptives to have played an important role in her life. "I benefited from a little pill that allowed me to schedule and space my pregnancies," she writes in The Moment of Lift.
A large part of the book argues for expanding access to the birth control pill, which she has encouraged governments to do and supported through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. She writes that the birth control pill "is the key that will unlock all kinds of obstacles that have held women back for so long."
She notes repeatedly in her book that the Catholic Church teaches that contraception is immoral, but she never explains the Church's reasoning, namely that separating sexual intercourse from procreation by artificial means degrades it, creates a gap between man and woman by preventing a mutual self-giving, and contributes to leading to divorce.
Instead, she says, her conscience tells her to value another teaching of the Church – love of neighbor – over the Church's teaching on contraception. She states in her book that she "felt strong support from priests, nuns, and laypeople who told me I was on solid moral ground. …"
Ms. Gates, 59, the second of four children, was raised in the Catholic faith and attended Catholic schools in Dallas, where she attended Mass five days a week, according to The Moment of Lift. Being called a non-Catholic hurts her, she says in the book. Although she expected criticism from Catholics regarding her support for contraception, she writes:
"I also expected the online comments calling me 'ex-Catholic Melinda Gates' or 'so-called Catholic Melinda Gates' — but it still hurt me."
Ms. Gates does not speak for or against abortion in her book, but at one point, she reproaches opponents of contraception for confusing it with abortion.
Ms. Gates does not like to talk about abortion.
During a speech on contraception in March 2011, for example, she evaded the question of abortion. She did the same during a "Ted Talk" in April 2012.
In 2014, Ms. Gates wrote in a blog post on the Gates Foundation website (no longer available) that "like everyone, I struggle with this issue," that she did not want her support for contraception to be mixed with what she calls "the emotional and personal debate on abortion" and that, consequently, she stated:
"I have decided not to engage publicly on this topic – and the Gates Foundation has decided not to fund abortion."
This statement drew ire from both abortion supporters and opponents, who claim the Gates Foundation has effectively supported abortion for a long time through financial donations to the International Planned Parenthood Federation, among others.
If abortion was not a subject of public interest five years ago, what has changed?
The Dobbs decision by the U.S. Supreme Court two years ago, which overturned Roe v. Wade and returned abortion policy to legislatures and referendums, prompted Ms. Gates to announce her support for abortion, as she wrote in an op-ed published on May 28 in the New York Times, which does not mention the word "abortion."
"While I have long focused on improving access to contraception abroad, in the post-Dobbs era, I now feel compelled to support reproductive rights here at home," writes Ms. Gates in that op-ed. "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. I want to help even the match."
An Unequal Fight
Like Mr. Gates, pro-life advocates see a disparity in funds, but they say it tilts in favor of abortion supporters.
"Every day, the pro-life generation relives the story of David and Goliath, as we are everywhere outmatched by financial giants. For example, the $700 million that our federal government wastes on Planned Parenthood allows them to make themselves known to more women and promote a culture of death through intentional abortion," said Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America and Students for Life Action, to the Register by email, through a spokesperson.
"But the beauty of a just cause is knowing that it does not depend solely on us, and that is our true strength, even though all donations are welcome," she added.
Students for Life of America, Inc. reported, for its fiscal year ending December 31, 2022, gross revenues of approximately $13.8 million, according to its IRS Form 990. For the same year, its political action committee, Students for Life Action, Inc., reported revenues of approximately $4.5 million.
Since the Dobbs decision in June 2022, pro-lifers have lost abortion referendums in all seven states where they have been held. In 2024, abortion referendums will be proposed in four states and could be proposed in nine others.
In each race, abortion opponents claim they have spent far less money than abortion supporters.
Tobias, president of the National Right to Life Committee, which reported for the fiscal year ending April 30, 2023 gross revenues of approximately $3.9 million, told the Register that pro-lifers have never been able to compete with pro-abortion organizations when it comes to money.
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"There has always been a funding disparity between those seeking to protect innocent human life and those who want to promote the murder of unborn children," said Mr. Tobias. "The additional funds brought by French Gates will add to an already well-filled war chest. Will that make our task more difficult? Of course, but pro-lifers are determined optimists. We will continue to speak for those who have no voice."
Melanie Israel, a visiting researcher at the Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Life, Religion, and Family at the Heritage Foundation, said that even if pro-lifers are outmatched by Mr. Gates and other abortion advocates when it comes to money, they can still have an effect.
"Abortion harms women and girls – it does not empower them. This announcement reminds us that the pro-life movement is facing a powerful cabal of well-funded abortion activists," said Mr. Israel to the Register through a spokesperson. "An effective and meaningful way to counter the culture of death is to find your local pregnancy resource center and offer it a helping hand, financial support, or both."
"Pregnancy help centers are on the front lines of making abortion unnecessary and unthinkable. They deserve our support," said Mr. Israel. "Perhaps one day, Melinda Gates will think so too."
This article was originally published by the National Catholic Register (Article Link). It is republished and translated with the author's permission.