Democrat presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg received Planned Parenthood’s Global Citizen Award at the abortion giant’s annual gala in March 2014.
“I obviously care about a woman’s right to choose,” Bloomberg said as he accepted his award. “I think a woman shouldn’t be forced into doing anything. She’s got to make the decision. It’s her body and I understand that.”
The former New York City mayor said in his acceptance speech that his foundation would invest “$50 million into a major expansion of our efforts in Tanzania” and into “Uganda, Senegal, Burkina Faso, and Nicaragua,” where he and Planned Parenthood would work to overturn pro-life laws.
Bloomberg said he was “happy to say our major partner in this new effort will be Planned Parenthood Global.”
He said, “In some countries, our funding will help advocates work towards better sexual health policies for teens and better access to contraceptives.”
“In others, it will help push for less restrictive abortion laws and more government funding for high quality accessible services,” Bloomberg continued as he encouraged his audience to applaud.
The current Democrat presidential candidate said his funding was needed to counter the protests of pro-life advocates.
“That’s necessary because … there are plenty of outside interest groups funding the other side of these issues and we cannot let them go unanswered,” he said. “This is a fight for the right to women to control their own destinies and let me tell you we are in it to help them win it and we’re going to stay in it and we’re going to stay in it until they do.”
Bloomberg added his philanthropies would also work with the U.N. to help “address emergencies like a sudden shortage of medical supplies” that could create obstacles for abortions and the delivery of “gender health.”
He then lambasted state laws that require abortion clinics to have the same safety standards as other outpatient surgery facilities.
“We can’t allow our country to take these steps backwards,” Bloomberg said. “The fight for women’s rights is a long way from over and it’s a fight that is fundamental to the principles of freedom and equality that define America and underpin human rights.”
Some prominent Democrat women, however, have condemned Bloomberg for his “misogynistic comments.”
Bloomberg’s rival Sen. Elizabeth Warren (MA) denounced him during the Democrat debate in Las Vegas last week, for calling women “fat broads” and “horse-faced lesbians.”
Warren said Bloomberg should leave the race, asserting we “have to assume” he “repeatedly engaged in harassment, engaged in discrimination.”
In a column at NBC News in which she further explained her endorsement of Sen. Bernie Sanders (VT) for president, actress and former New York gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon urged fellow Democrats not to submit to accepting Bloomberg as a “unity” candidate.
“We are not unified when we tell women to accept a candidate whose misogynistic comments rival those of his fellow billionaire currently in the White House,” she asserted.
Bloomberg’s self-description as a women’s rights advocate appears to run counter to some of his initiatives, such as the “Latch On” program he proposed as mayor in which he planned to ban baby formula so that new mothers would be forced to breastfeed their newborns.
Additionally, a 1997 lawsuit filed against Bloomberg and his company alleged that he told an employee who disclosed her pregnancy to him that she should “kill it” in order to protect her career at his firm.
In his address to Planned Parenthood as he accepted the abortion chain’s award, Bloomberg said he is “glad to stand with … Planned Parenthood’s outstanding president, Cecile Richards, and with philanthropists like my friends, Bill and Melinda Gates,” who also invest in greater abortion access abroad and whose foundation financed the Common Core State Standards.
Bloomberg has always displayed his contempt for the pro-life community and message.
As LifeSiteNews observed, in 2011, when Bloomberg was still New York City mayor, he signed a crisis pregnancy center “gag order” into law:
The law, similar to one in Maryland recently deemed unconstitutional by a federal judge, forces pro-life pregnancy centers to prominently display whether they perform abortions in both English and Spanish at their entrances, as well as on all promotional material.
Any pregnancy center in violation of the rule would be liable for up to a $1000 fine for a first offense, and up to $2,500 for subsequent offenses, as well as up to six months imprisonment.
In 2012, Bloomberg endorsed Barack Obama’s re-election bid, stating he was doing so, in part, to protect his two adult daughters’ access to abortion.
“When I step into the voting booth, I think about the world I want to leave my two daughters, and the values that are required to guide us there,” he wrote in a column at his news service.
“The two parties’ nominees for president offer different visions of where they want to lead America,” he said. “One believes a woman’s right to choose should be protected for future generations; one does not. That difference, given the likelihood of Supreme Court vacancies, weighs heavily on my decision.”
Bloomberg received his award from Planned Parenthood on the same evening former House Minority Leader – now House Speaker – Nancy Pelosi received the organization’s Margaret Sanger Award, its highest honor.
In his acceptance address, Bloomberg congratulated Pelosi, stating, “Nancy, you should know, has been a real champion for women’s rights and a great friend to New York City.”
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