Worldwide campaign on abortion raises $300m, UCL Lancet lecture told

The Dutch MP leading the worldwide campaign against Donald Trump's funding ban on abortion advice revealed at the UCL Lancet lecture last night that it has so far raised $300m including up to $100m from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and an anonymous US donor. Lilianne Ploumen, the former Dutch development co-operation minister, only launched the She Decides campaign in January to counter Trump's withdrawal of funding from NGOs that perform abortions or provide information on the procedure. It is estimated it will leave a $600m a year shortfall worldwide. She said the response to the campaign had been "amazing," adding: "It was as if people were waiting to rise against the Conservative tide..it was an outpouring of relief and hope." In a passionate explanation of why she took up the campaign on women's sexual and reproductive rights, she highlighted a series of damning statistics on the state of women's rights around the world including that one in three women still experience sexual or physical violence and 46 out of 173 countries don't have laws on domestic violence. She revealed that she was also now campaigning for a new law in Holland to outlaw unequal pay. "I am drawing up a new law to make unequal pay a criminal act," said Ploumen, who is basing it on proposed legislation in Iceland where all public and private businesses will be required to prove they offer equal pay to employees. Those that fail to show in audits that they have fair pay face fines.