Marie Stopes abortion charity bankrolled by porn baron’s millions
A CONTROVERSIAL abortion charity has accepted millions of pounds of funding from a pornography tycoon, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Marie Stopes International (MSI) has received more than £7.5million from sex toy salesman Phil Harvey, prompting critics to accuse the charity of betraying its stated aim of ‘empowering women and girls to take control of their futures’.
Mr Harvey’s business, Adam & Eve, was established as a mailorder firm in 1971 and it has become one of America’s leading suppliers of erotica, with £60 million of adult film and sex-toy sales last year.
Adam & Eve gives away 25 per cent of its profits through Mr Harvey’s charitable foundation, DKT International. According to accounts seen by this newspaper, this includes at least £7.5million in cash and supplies to MSI since 1995.
Mr Harvey, 82, is a trustee of MSI, but the charity makes barely any mention of him on its website.
London-based MSI, which arranged about five million abortions last year and received £48million of British foreign aid funding, was recently reprimanded by the Charity Commission after chief executive Simon Cooke had his pay doubled to £434,000.
The charity was established by British doctor Tim Black after he saved the Marie Stopes abortion clinic in London from bankruptcy.
He studied at University of North Carolina with Mr Harvey in the late 1960s and they went into business selling condoms through the post, which was illegal at the time. In 1986,
‘Funding from industry that achieves opposite’
Mr Harvey was charged with distributing obscene material. After an eight-year legal battle, he cleared his name and successfully sued the government. Meanwhile, Dr Black – the pioneer of the so-called ‘lunchtime abortion’ – was building MSI into a massive organisation that now operates across 37 countries.
Last night, Andrea Williams, the chief executive of Christian Concern, which opposes carrying out abortions, said: ‘Serious questions need to be asked about why MSI, an organisation which says it is dedicated to empowering women, has received millions in funding from an industry that achieves the opposite.’
MSI said: ‘Phil Harvey has spent his life defending sexual and reproductive health and rights, and has played a significant role in expanding access for women across the world.
‘We are proud that he continues to contribute to the organisation.’
Mr Harvey did not respond to requests for a comment.