NPR's 'Morning Edition' Examines Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation's Contributions To Organizations Supporting Abortion Rights

NPR's "Morning Edition" on Tuesday examined the work of the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, which has operated "quietly" as a "major funder of abortion-rights-related causes," and the implications of Berkshire Hathaway Chair Warren Buffett's plans to donate stock currently valued at about $3 billion to the Buffett Foundation (Rovner, "Morning Edition," NPR, 6/27). Buffett on Sunday in a letter disclosed that he would give the stock to the foundation, which is named after his late wife and supports reproductive health and rights, family planning and college scholarship programs. Warren Buffett's donation will be added to the $2.5 billion bestowed to the foundation in the will of Susan Thompson Buffett, who died of a stroke in 2004. In the past, the Buffetts' philanthropic efforts reportedly have contributed to the Center for Reproductive Rights in support of its court battle to overturn Nebraska's ban on so-called "partial-birth" abortion; the ban was overturned in 2001. Their foundation also has given money to Ipas, the Population Council, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, NARAL Pro-Choice America, Family Health International, the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, Catholics for a Free Choice and the National Campaign To Prevent Teen Pregnancy. In addition, they funded millions of dollars to help mifepristone, which causes a medical abortion when taken in conjunction with the drug misoprostol, win FDA approval. Many observers had expected Buffett to give most of his money to the Buffett Foundation, but on Sunday he disclosed that his biggest donation will be stock valued at $30.7 billion to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which works on global health and poverty issues (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 6/26).

Funding for Training, Research and Policy
Ellen Chesler, author of "Women of Valor: Margaret Sanger and the Birth Control Movement in America" and board member of the PPFA, said that the Buffett Foundation's donations have trained a new generation of physicians to perform abortions "at a time when the first pioneering generation of doctors who did it out of a sense of moral obligation is retiring and not being replaced." Chesler said that in addition to funding for research and training, the Buffett Foundation provided funding for policy efforts to bolster abortion-rights supporters' efforts in the U.S. political debate, "which was being heavily influenced by huge amounts of money being poured into conservative institutions that were opposing abortion rights and family planning." The NPR segment also includes comments from Jeff Krehely, deputy director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, and Frances Kissling, president of CFFC ("Morning Edition," NPR, 6/27).

The complete segment is available online in RealPlayer.

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