Catholic-Funded Organizations and Networks Financially Tied to Massive Pro-Abortion Initiative

Washington, DC – Several community organizing network affiliates and organizations, financially backed by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, are dues-paying members of an organization rallying funds for abortion clinics, according to a new report by the Lepanto Institute.

Faith in Action, the Gamaliel Foundation, Jobs with Justice, and the Industrial Areas Foundation – which account for about 30 organizations receiving funding from the USCCB’s Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) – are dues-paying members of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP).  NCRP’s initiative “FUNDING THE FRONTLINES: A Roadmap To Supporting Health Equity Through Abortion Access,” is an active project raising funds for abortion clinics.

“NCRP is waging an all-out war on preborn children, and several of the CCHD’s most favored network affiliates are dues-paying members,” said Michael Hichborn, president of the Lepanto Institute.  “This means Catholic funding is being used to help murder babies in the womb.”

Faith in Action, which currently has 11 CCHD-funded affiliate members, received a $500,000 grant from the CCHD in 2015. In 2020, the Lepanto Institute reported that Faith in Action itself advocated looting and rioting, engaged in partisan politics, and promoted abortion and transgenderism.

The Gamaliel Foundation, which currently has 10 CCHD-funded affiliate members, received a grant from the CCHD in 2020 for an undisclosed amount of money.  In 2013, Hichborn proved to CCHD that the executive director of Gamaliel lied to the CCHD about its membership in a coalition that promoted same-sex “marriage.”  Additionally, the executive director of Gamaliel spent six years as a member of NCRP’s board of directors.

“The grant agreement, which all organizations receiving funding from the CCHD must sign, is absolutely clear.  Grantees are forbidden from being members of coalitions that engage in activities contrary to Catholic moral or social teaching,” said Hichborn.  “In this case, these groups are not only members, but they are paying dues!”

“Given how easy it was to find this information, there’s no way CCHD did any proper vetting of these groups’ organizational memberships,” Hichborn added.  “While gross incompetence is a possibility, if CCHD does nothing about this, then their willful complicity will be on full display.”

The Lepanto Institute is repeating its call for the CCHD to be shut down completely.

The full report can be read here: https://lepantoin.org/32-catholic-funded-agencies-tied-to-pro-abortion-initiative/