"My 1-year-old granddaughter may grow up with fewer rights than I had," she said
Melinda French Gates has a plan for how she plans to spend her next $1 billion. Writing in the New York Times, she says that she will be using the money to “on behalf of women and families around the world, including on reproductive rights in the United States,” and that she expects to spend that much money towards the effort over the next two years through her philanthropy Pivotal.
French Gates announced earlier this month that she would be leaving the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the non-profit she set up with her ex-husband and Microsoft $MSFT Founder Bill Gates in 2000. Under the terms of her separation, she said she would be taking $12.5 billion with her to continue foundation work.
Some of the causes she mentions in her New York Times op-ed include women’s political participation, maternal mortality, and other health concerns. Though she doesn’t use the word “abortion” explicitly, she does mention “the post-Dobbs era,” a short-hand for Dobbs v. Jackson, the Supreme Court case that greatly curtailed national abortion rights.
“As shocking as it is to contemplate, my 1-year-old granddaughter may grow up with fewer rights than I had,” French Gates writes.
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