Planned Parenthood Abortion Biz President Becomes Ford Foundation Trustee
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
February 1, 2010
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Unable to earn the backing of grassroots Americans, the pro-abortion lobby has held close relationships with foundations — from which it has drawn millions for its advocacy work. Cementing those ties, the president of the Planned Parenthood abortion business has been named a trustee of the Ford Foundation.
Planned Parenthood announced today in a statement LifeNews.com obtained, that the president of the abortion business, Cecile Richards, was named to the post.
Richards was elected this week to join the Ford Foundation’s Board of Trustees and she will officially begin at the foundation’s next board meeting in May.
“There are few institutions in American life which have done as much as the Ford Foundation to advance the needs of those who have the least, both here in the United States and around the world," Richards said. “It is a tremendous honor to join the Ford Foundation as a trustee, working with its staff and grantees to advance the foundation’s invaluable efforts to support social justice worldwide.”
Ford trustees serve six-year terms, and may be re-elected to the board for a second term.
The 15-member board of trustees sets broad policy related to the foundation’s issue areas and geographic focus and oversees its investments and grants.
Wendy Wright of Concerned Women for America talked with LifeNews.com about the news.
"This appointment helps expose Ford Foundation’s long-time radical work on population control," she said.
"Cecile Richards joining the board of the Ford Foundation reinforces the concern that wealthy elites never ended their penchant for eugenics. Planned Parenthood and the Ford Foundation are two major players in the sordid history of population control. They both pioneered campaigns targeting poor minorities," she continued. "They both represent rich and powerful people who, as Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg put it, believe that abortion is a solution to ‘growth in populations that we don’t want to have too many of.’"
"This alignment does not bode well for the poor and vulnerable who love life and need help to care for their young," Wright said.
For more than half a century, the Ford Foundation has provided grants and loans for various projects, including funding pro-abortion groups.
The foundation has been a prime financial backer of "Catholics for Choice," the pro-abortion group that has twice been condemned as a fraud by U.S. bishops.
The Center for Reproductive Rights, a New York-based legal group that is active in overturning pro-life laws in the United States and promoting abortion abroad, has a yearly revenue of nearly $13 million.
According to its Annual Report, the largest contributors to CRR in 2008 included the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Picower Foundation, with grants totaling over half a million dollars each. Other large donors included the Ford Foundation.
According to its latest annual report, the International Women’s Health Coalition (IWHC) includes the Ford Foundation as one of its largest backers.
Samantha Singson of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute has also noted that the international non-governmental organization Equality Now, a group that has spearheaded campaigns for abortion access in Poland and Nepal, "receives major funding from pro-abortion foundations including George Soros’ Open Society Institute and the Ford Foundation."
ACTION: Contact the Ford Foundation about its naming Richards to the board of trustees and its pro-abortion grants at https://www.fordfound.org/about/contactus
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