Philanthropist Uses Fortune to Advance Culture of Death
Camilla Gunnarson

When I was growing up, whenever the subject of charity was discussed, my father would quote Mother Teresa who said, "Charity to be fruitful must cost us. Give until it hurts." I had difficulty understanding the spiritual law that material riches have to be used the right way in order to bear fruit. Couldn't any act of charity be used for good, I mused?

In June 2006, chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., Warren Buffett announced that he intends on giving away about 85% of his fortune in the next few years. With an estimated net worth of around $42 billion US, Buffett is ranked by Forbes as the second-richest man in the world, next only to Microsoft chairman Bill Gates.

Buffett has pledged to donate $30 billion towards the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, making it the largest charitable donation in history. Buffett said he admired the foundation and
wanted to extend its 'future capabilities.' "Who can possibly do a better job dispersing this money? When you accumulate wealth, it makes sense to turn the money over to an investment manager who can manage it better than you can" said Buffett, about his decision to donate his money to the Gates Foundation. Buffett will also be joining the board of directors of the Gates Foundation.

While the world is in awe of this generous act of giving, a different reaction is felt by pro-lifers. President of Human Life International, Father Thomas Euteneuer said, "Warren Buffett gives until it hurts. Hurts women, hurts the developing world and kills preborn children."

It has long been known by pro-lifers that Gates and Buffett have been supporters of population control measures, giving large sums of money to groups that advocate abortion, contraception and sterilization.

Beginning in the 1960's, Buffett helped finance the legalization of California's abortion laws. Since then, his impressive fortune has been funding anti-life policies through groups such as Planned  Parenthood of America, the Population Council, Pathfinder International, National Abortion Rights Action League and Catholics for Choice (a group that seeks to undermine the Catholic Church's teaching on the sanctity of human life) to name a few.

Among others, Buffett gave a grant to the Center for Reproductive Rights, an organization that fought bans on partial-birth abortion. Millions of dollars were given to Family Health International, which sought approval of the sterilization chemical quinacrine. Quinacrine works by scarring the fallopian tubes after being inserted into the uterus by an intrauterine device (IUD) inserter. Risks include cancer, development of abnormal lesions in the uterus, ectopic pregnancy and fetal exposure. At least three women died worldwide from the chemical before the Food and Drug Administration banned its use in the US.

Buffett is not content in sharing his wealth with just the American people. He has sent funds to third world countries for the production and distribution of portable suction abortion devices designed to "discreetly and inexpensively" kill pre-born children up to 12 weeks old.

Have you ever wondered how the abortion pill, RU486 was fast tracked for approval in the US in the 1990's? It was Warren Buffett who gave $3 million dollars to fund the research and clinical trials of the deadly drug. Since then, approximately 500,000 babies have been killed with RU-486 and at least, six American women have been killed following its use. Even more tragic, three of those women left children who are now motherless.

At the heart of Buffett's charitable giving is an elitist ideology that believes people are the problem and fewer of them will eliminate the problems of the world. Buffett may be touted as "one of America's best-loved billionaires," but his overt goal to impose unfettered access to abortion, sterilization and contraception in order to rid the world of its problems couldn't be more uncharitable. Even Roger Lowenstien, Buffett's sympathetic biographer, admits that Buffett's "philanthropic interests have a strange otherworldly aura to them."

The Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation stands to receive a gift of $3 billion from Buffett as well. Named after Buffett's late wife, The Susan Thompsom Buffett Foundation has a similar obsession with "reproductive health" issues, though less known. Proabortion groups such as the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy, Planned Parenthood and NARAL have all received funding from the foundation. In a telling statement, The Center for Reproductive Law and Policy described the government of Peru's 'compulsory family planning program' that mandated sterilization quotas, coercing 300,000 women into sterilization as "excellent in terms of access and information."

Bill Gates has been steadfast in giving millions of dollars to organizations pushing abortion around the world, with most of his money going to Planned Parenthood and its affiliates. The Gates Foundation has even expanded its giving into Canada. The Planned Parenthood Federation of Canada received $1.3 million from his foundation. No one would argue that Gates is a genius and his approach to philanthropic giving is no different. All of the programs he's funded are promoted
under the guise of stopping AIDS and poverty.

Gates attributes his upbringing to his interest in focussing on reproductive health issues. LifeSiteNews.com details an interview with Bill Moyers in 2003, in which Gates said, "When I was growing up, my parents were always involved in various volunteer things. My dad was head of Planned Parenthood. And it was very controversial to be involved with that. And so it's fascinating. At the dinner table my parents are very good at sharing the things that they were doing. And almost treating us like adults, talking about that."

In 1995, Buffett and Gates visited communist China. Media coverage said they both visited a "family planning" clinic. Neither of them decried China's one-child policy, which has killed an estimated 5 million to 10 million unborn children —80 to 90 percent of which were girls or the accepted practice of women being forcibly strapped to tables and given abortions, even in the ninth month of pregnancy.

Recently Bill Gates announced that he would be gradually distancing himself from his work with Microsoft to focus on his charitable work. It is a tragedy that these two men will further today's assaults on the sanctity of human life. Sadly they join a long line of influential and wealthy men who employ coercion and misinformation to achieve their goal of anti-life policies.

Of coarse I'm not saying that being wealthy is a bad thing but when it's being used to advance the culture of death, its fruits can only reap a devastating effect on humanity. Philanthropy is defined as: the effort or inclination to increase the well being of humankind, as by charitable aid or donations. Since when has philanthropy aimed at killing unborn children, exploiting women, eliminating the poor, and manipulating the developing world become humanitarian?

The pro-life movement cannot compete with the likes of Gates and Buffett. Let's face it; money is the one thing the pro-life movement needs most to create a cultural change where the right to life of every human being is recognized. But money is the one thing we don't have. To be honest, we need some billionaires; heck we'll take some millionaires! Most of our pro-life groups struggle from month to month to keep their offices running and their presence known throughout their individual communities. Even though the educational arm of the pro-life movement doesn't lobby for change in legislation, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has refused to grant charitable status to any pro-life educational group that has opened its doors within the last twenty years. For an organization to be a charity its objects need to be exclusively charitable. It's ironic that donations to Gates' and Buffett's foundations have the benefit of being tax deductible and our work does not merit the same benefit since our objects and activities involve saving unborn children and their mother's from the pain of abortion.

The truth is, we've never had money but that's never stopped us before. I believe the reason we keep going is because we have something far more powerful than money. Fr. Euteneuer describes it best in his June 30 Blog where he says, "…they have money, we have God; which means we live in hope of the definitive solution to this mess and they live in fear of the stock market crash. While we never cease our human efforts to labour on behalf of the poorest of the world's poor, the unborn, neither can we pretend that our best efforts towards a worldly solution to the anti-life movement will be sufficient. Only God can win this fight, presuming our cooperation. He is not impressed with the wealth of men; in fact He scoffs at it. He is impressed, however with our humility and wants us on our knees every spare moment while we work for the unborn. Prayerful humility reminds of where our strength lies. It is not in money or in our effort or cleverness. It is in Him.”