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US Catholics funded Malawi opponents of legal abortion in cases of rape

After condemning abortion reform as an imposition of “foreign cultures”, a religious group in Malawi took thousands of dollars in foreign cash

By Josephine Chinele
US Catholics funded Malawi opponents of legal abortion in cases of rape
Kamazu Central Hospital in Lilongwe, Malawi | Eva-Lotta Jansson / Alamy Stock Photo. All Rights Reserved.
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A Catholic group in Malawi used money from the US to support its campaign against a bill to allow legal abortion in cases of rape – after condemning proposed reforms as an imposition of “foreign cultures”.

The Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM), a local assembly of Catholic bishops, received a $30,000 grant from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) in 2019 for “pastoral animation and advocacy of members of parliament and the laity in political leadership”.

Part of the money was used to lobby members of parliament against the proposed abortion legislation, the ECM’s secretary-general Father Henry Saindi told openDemocracy when asked about the grant.

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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0