Sex discrimination in abortions has cost the world 60 million women, says Nirj Deva MEP. The Conservative International Development Spokesman is launching a campaign today urging disclosure by the European Commission of the funding provided for abortions in the developing world.
The campaign is based on the UNFPA’s State of the World Population Report last year which reported a global deficit of 60 million women in the world –the same as the total population of the UK – and that these ‘missing’ females had been prenatally sex-selected, aborted, and infanticised. Ban ki-Moon, in his opening address to the UN’s Commission on the Status of Women in New York, said: ‘Through the practice of prenatal sex selection, countless [women] are denied the right even to exist.’
Mr Deva said: “I am determined to expose the scandalous practice of gender selected abortion.
“I am demanding a gender analysis on every abortion funded by European taxpayers and for the European Parliament to be regularly informed of the results. To their shame the Socialists and other political Groups of the Left have so far failed to back my call for full transparency.
“Gender selected abortion is the most significant cause of injustice against women in the world today - removing the basic right to life. Our campaign in the European Parliament is for the EU to monitor the extent to which it is funding gender-selected abortions in the developing world. We are expecting ferocious opposition. Any readers who agree with us can email their much-needed moral support to nirj.deva@europarl.europa.eu.”
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Nirj Deva has asked the Commission to respond to the following questions:
How much does the EU spend annually on sexual reproductive and health rights in the developing world?
Of this amount, how much is spent (directly and indirectly) on funding abortion?
How many abortions in the developing world does the EU fund per year?
Which are the largest 20 grants made by the EU for abortion provision for the latest year in which figures are available?
Does the EU give / has the EU ever given any money to Marie Stopes International or International Planned Parenthood Federation (either directly, or via intermediary NGOs), and if so, how much (broken down by year)?
Does the Commission keep targets as to how many abortions it should fund in the developing world (or by country) over a set time period?
To what extent does the Commission use abortion as an instrument of population control in the developing world?
Does the Commission perform a gender analysis on abortions funded by the EU in the developing world; and if not, how much extra would it cost per abortion to record whether the aborted baby was a boy or a girl?