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The Government has signed off on doubling the taxpayer funding it provides to the International Planned Parenthood Federation, the world’s largest abortion provider.
Speaking in the Dáil last week ahead of the vote to remove the three-day abortion wait period, Minister of State Neale Richmond said that he had the “distinct honour” of addressing an International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) conference in Dublin Monday June 15.
“An event like that being held here would have been completely unthinkable not so long ago”, Minister Richmond said, adding that those in attendance “see real political and administrative pressure being put on their livelihoods”.
“They came to Dublin because they know it is a safe place to have their conference and have a discussion, where people can disagree with them but not persecute them.
“I am delighted the Government is now in a position to support the federation. I signed off last night on a doubling of our funding to it,” the minister said.
While the precise amount of fresh funding the Government will be giving to the IPPF was not disclosed, the latest year for which data is available (2024) reveals that €1 million was provided that year.
Since 2022, the Government has provided €2.3 million in funding for the IPPF.
Sandra Parda of the Life Institute said that the enthusiasm Neale Richmond had for doubling Irish taxpayer-funding to the world’s biggest abortion provider said a lot about Fine Gael’s priorities.
“We have children on waiting lists and families in dire need of urgent healthcare yet we have millions to splash out to an outfit as controversial as Planned Parenthood who have been accused of working to change culture and abortion law in African countries in what amounts to ideological colonisation,” she said.
Meanwhile, it has also provided over €50 million in funding for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in the five year period covering 2019-2024.
In response to a parliamentary question from Deputy Ken O’Flynn in April, Minister Richmond said that €50,411,250 of taxpayer funding had been allocated to the UNFPA since 2019, excluding 2025 and 2026.
Despite Minister Richmond’s assurances on that occasion that the provision of abortion “is not a central element of Ireland’s development cooperation programme”, that no funding is “earmarked” for this purpose and that Ireland does not “promote abortion as a method of family planning”, the aforementioned organisations are directly involved in facilitating the practice internationally.
A 2022 IPPF report says that the organisation delivered a total of 226.9 million “sexual and reproductive health services” that year, including five million abortion services, which it said was an increase of 11 percent from 2021.
Minister Richmond said supporting organisations like the IPPF is something that he will continue to do during his tenure with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
“It is in the context of my work in international development that I want to ensure Ireland continues to be a safe and progressive place to be a woman, first and foremost, and everything that goes with that”, he said.
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