Arabella Advisors Finances Attacks on Pro-Life Groups
A few days ago, we recounted how Arabella Advisors, the US-based hub of a politically liberal “dark money” network, funds pro-abortion and pro-LGBTQ organizations outside the United States. Now, the Population Research Institute office team has found more documentary evidence. New Venture Fund, an organization created by Arabella Advisors to transfer funds from large donors in rich countries to NGOs in poor countries, has entirely financed a project called “Neutralizing Opposition Groups,” delivering $282,000 to Planned Parenthood’s main partner in Peru, PROMSEX.
The Peruvian Agency for International Cooperation has a record, Project 34020, from 2018, which certifies the delivery of these funds. This official document also establishes that the general purpose or objective of the said project is “to promote the joint and effective response of organizations defending sexual and reproductive rights to neutralize the actions of opposition groups.” That is, pro-life groups.
Among the plans of Project 34020 is to carry out a “joint work of the legal group and the communication group to strengthen the capacity to carry out strategic litigation of the so-called defenders of sexual and reproductive rights at the national level.” The project also aims “to promote investigative journalism on Latin American opposition groups, their attack strategies, and the improvement of public denunciation at the national and regional levels.” Using a war metaphor, this would be like attacking pro-life groups by air, sea, and land.
The activities detailed in the PROMSEX project include technical assistance, legal advice, and economic support to organizations carrying out “initiatives to neutralize opposition groups at the national level.” The objective is to train pro-abortion groups in legal and juridical aspects to enhance their attacks. For example, Project 34020 mentions a “meeting of experts to develop a joint argument focused on an issue of regional impact with the potential for national litigation.” They will also promote “research” and the development of proposals and standard pieces. In other words, thousands of dollars are being spent to organize a professional, systematic, and coordinated offensive against all pro-life groups.
I know all this very well because I was one of their targets: my office and I are part of the opposition they want to eliminate or at least silence. In 2015, I was sued by PROMSEX along with the Catholic News Agency – ACIPRENSA (currently part of the EWTN group). The reason was statements on the Aciprensa portal where I mentioned that NGOs like PROMSEX received large sums of money from morally corrupt Peruvian legislators. The notification of the lawsuit and the more than 200 pages of their arguments demanding “institutional honor reparation” from PROMSEX arrived at my house. They hired one of the most expensive law firms in Peru. The trial lasted eight and a half years and underwent three judicial instances.
Today, I have no doubt that PROMSEX can afford extremely costly “strategic litigation,” like the one they carried out against me and the Population Research Institute’s Ibero-America office because they have the financial backing of institutions like Arabella Advisors and Planned Parenthood.
Finally, the Constitutional Court of Peru declared me innocent. The judges found nothing untrue in my statements or not protected by the correct exercise of freedom of expression.
With this lawsuit against us, the promoters of the legalization of the killing of unborn children tried to send a mafia message to the pro-life community: those who speak against PROMSEX pay the consequences. And we are not the only ones who are sued for defending the values of the right to life and the promotion of the family. But their move didn’t go well. Our victory will surely encourage many more pro-life organizations to lose their fear of these battles. In particular, this experience leaves us with the deep satisfaction that all the money PROMSEX spent trying to silence us was not used for the murder of unborn children.
PROMSEX’s Project 34020, financed by Arabella Advisors through New Venture Fund, confirms that the pro-life community in Peru is mounting a steadfast opposition to their nefarious death plans. If the cited facts are not enough, we can also add what PROMSEX has written in the said project. In the “progress of results and problems encountered” section, they report: “due to the political instability both in Peru and the region, there has been an increase in opposition groups to sexual and reproductive rights.” That is, they use money and organize because they fear us — because they see how we advance in defending life.
That’s why they will continue attacking us. So far, the documentation obtained from the Peruvian Agency for International Cooperation confirms that PROMSEX has only used a small part of the funds received for Project 34020. There are still thousands of dollars available…and there may be much more.
According to the Arabella Advisors Impact Report 2021–2022, Arabella has funded more than 400 projects in Peru between 2016 and 2022. New Venture Fund is just one of the organizations created by Arabella Advisors to transfer funds from large donors in rich countries to NGOs working in poor countries. Arabella Advisors has created a whole system called “Fiscal Sponsorship,” which is explained in detail on the New Venture Fund website. With this model, Arabella Advisors’ dark money, transferred to New Venture Fund, is made available to like-minded NGOs in poor countries (for example, PROMSEX). This move avoids these partner NGOs having to legally establish themselves in the United States if they seek access to these funds. New Venture Fund does it for them and manages the project for them.
For our part, at the Ibero-America Office of Population Research Institute, we will continue investigating, collecting information, and leading the opposition that Arabella so fears: that of those who love life and influence society to end abortion once and for all.
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