A pro-life peer has called on the Government to launch an investigation into claims that international development money has been spent on illegal abortions in Kenya.
Lord Alton of Liverpool urged the Government to carry out a review of the Department for International Development (DfID), due to its links with abortion giant Marie Stopes International (MSI).
Abortion is legal in Kenya to save a mother’s life, but MSI has now been ordered to cease all abortion services there after evidence was uncovered that it has been offering abortion on demand.
‘Intense imposition’
DfID has given MSI more than £200 million in the last five years to spend on ‘family planning’ services.
Lord Alton said the Government needs to determine urgently “whether Marie Stopes International is in fact promoting and performing abortions contrary to the law in Kenya.
“Investment in quality maternal health services in Africa should be prioritised rather than an intense imposition of abortion and population control.
“As Africans themselves have said, millions of pounds of UK funding going to abortion providers in Africa equates to a kind of continuation of Western colonisation of the African people.”
Illegal
The Kenyan Government ordered MSI to cease its abortion services last month after it found one of its media campaigns promoted abortion for unwanted pregnancies.
It had originally broken advertising guidelines by promoting its abortion services on Kenyan radio networks.
The Kenyan Government then investigated the adverts and found them to be promoting illegal services.
MSI also courted controversy in Niger last month, as two clinics were shut down for breaching the law by providing abortion on demand.