The European Union has given more than a million euros to a charity that peddles anti-abortion misinformation and whose founder compared reproductive rights to the Holocaust, an investigation by openDemocracy can reveal.
The US-based World Youth Alliance (WYA) – which has a European office in Brussels – is officially a “non-religious” non-governmental organisation, yet its values and teachings often echo religious conservative talking points on gender rights.
The charity falsely states abortion can cause infertility and negatively impact subsequent pregnancies – claims rejected by the UK’s National Health Service – while its founder, Anna Halpine, has likened abortion to Europe and Africa’s worst genocides.
