The international community is mobilising to compensate for the ban decreed by the American President, Donald Trump, on allocating Federal funds to foreign NGOs supporting abortion. By initiative of the Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium and Denmark, representatives of some 50 countries have undertaken to attend a conference, to be held in Brussels on 2 March.
This initiative, known as She Decides, follows the decision of President Trump to ban funding for international NGOs that support abortion, leaving them with a funding gap of nearly $600 million. The Dutch Minister for Trade and Development Aid, Liliane Ploumen, reacted immediately to this announcement by proposing the creation of an international fund to offer women in developing countries access to the right information, contraception and abortion. She immediately received the support of Belgium, Sweden and Denmark, and then of other countries such as Luxembourg, Finland, Canada and Cape Verde.
When approached by EUROPE, the Maltese Presidency of the Council of the EU said that it would not be dealing with the matter. “The subject has not been brought to the attention of the Council. Hence, the Presidency has no part to play”, said a spokesperson to the Maltese authorities. On behalf of the European Commission, the Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development, Neven Mimica, will attend the conference of the donors, which he will also be addressing. However, no announcement of additional funding is anticipated. The Commissioner's press services pointed out that the EU has invested around €300 to 350 million over the last 10 years in maternal and neonatal health programmes in the developing countries. They went on to state that the Commission is currently analysing the size of the potential funding gap and the best approach and is also evaluating existing and forthcoming programmes to find ways of maximising their benefits to women and girls. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)