Abortion and LGBT Activists and Political Leader Funded by US Catholic Bishops

Once again, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) has been caught financing the activities of a pro-abortion, pro-homosexual organization.  Receiving its second grant in two years (totaling $95,500), Call to Action for Racial Equality (CARE) received $48,000 in the most recently posted grants list.  CARE has actively promoted homosexuality and transgenderism on social media, participated in a campaign “to defeat the proposed ban on Medicaid coverage for abortion,” and is led by pro-abortion and pro-LGBT activists, including a state delegate who is running for re-election.

The CCHD is an agency of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and annually provides anywhere from $9 million to $15 million to political agitation groups every year.  For fiscal year 2018-2019, the CCHD issued a total of $11,587,939 in grant money to such organizations.

In recent months, the Lepanto Institute has exposed several groups in the CCHD’s 2018-2019 grants cycle that have been directly involved in the promotion of grave moral evils.  Here are links to some of our latest articles:

• CCHD’s $65,000 grant to VOICE Buffalo
• CCHD Grantee Leaders Supporting Planned Parenthood and LGBT agenda
• CCHD’s $25,000 grant to Just Economics
• CCHD’s $750,000 grant to LGBT-promoting Ignatian Solidarity Network (ISN)
• CCHD Claims LGBT-Promotion by ISN was “in line with the catechism.”

What follows is perhaps the most egregious example of an organization that somehow passed CCHD’s “rigorous” screening process yet is flagrantly and blatantly promoting both abortion and homosexuality.

Call to Action for Racial Equality received $95,500 over two grant cycles including $48,000 in the most recently posted grants list.

In 2017, the same year in which CARE received its first-ever grant from the CCHD, CARE joined the pro-abortion organization WV Free “to defeat the proposed ban on Medicaid coverage for abortion.”

Listed among CARE’s “likes” on facebook is WV FREE.

WV Free describes itself as a “reproductive justice organization that works every day for West Virginia familes to improve education on reproductive options, increase access to affordable birth control, and protect personal decision-making, including decisions about whether or when to have child.”

In January of 2017, WV FREE published a press release with the headline, “New Poll Shows WV Voters Oppose Efforts to Change State Constitution and Ban Medicaid Coverage for Abortion.”  Identifying CARE as a “partner” in this campaign, the WV Free press release said:

WV FREE and their partners also announced the launch of the Health Not Politics campaign to defeat the proposed ban on Medicaid coverage for abortion. WV FREE, along with American Civil Liberties Union-WV, Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, National Association of Social WorkersWV, St. John’s Episcopal Church, Call to Action for Racial Equality (CARE), Unitarian Universalist Congregation, Women’s Health Center, West Virginia Citizen Action Group, West Virginians for Affordable Health Care, Boss Babes and Kanawha Valley NOW is organizing a statewide campaign including print and digital advertising, social media, a lobby day, and more.

In other words, CARE was a direct participant in the campaign designed to allow for Medicaid to fund abortions.

In addition to advocating for government-funded abortion, CARE has openly promoted homosexual activism on social media.

On June 10^th 2019, CARE promoted a homosexual “pride” event called “Freedom From Smoking Pride Drum Circle.”

On June 28, 2018, CARE actually hosted its own LGBT event titled “Queer and Black in Appalachia,” which included a screening of a homosexual activist movie titled “Paris is Burning”.  According to Wikipedia, “Paris is Burning:”

“is a 1990 American documentary film directed by Jennie Livingston. Filmed in the mid-to-late 1980s, it chronicles the ball culture of New York City and the African-American, Latino, gay, and transgender communities involved in it. Some critics consider the film to be an invaluable documentary of the end of the “Golden Age” of New York City drag balls, and a thoughtful exploration of race, class, gender, and sexuality in America.”

A number of homosexual activist groups participated in CARE’s event, including Queer Appalachia and Fairness West Virginia.

On Dec 18, 2017, CARE promoted homosexuality for children by sharing an episode of MTV Decoded titled “How to be Queer ‘AF’ at Prom” on Facebook.  The video promoted the idea that children had a “constitutional right” to be “out and proud” and your “queer beautiful self” at a high school prom.

The current executive director for CARE is Danielle Walker, a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates and current political candidate.  According to her bio on the CARE website, Walker is an active member of Morgantown NOW.

Morgantown NOW describes itself as focusing on “reproductive rights” and homosexual activism.

What is not listed on her bio is that Walker is also a member of the pro-abortion Reproductive Freedom Leadership Council (RFLC), which states as one of its core values:

We decry the ways in which a person’s ability to get contraception, abortion services, prenatal care, and other reproductive health services has for too long been diminished or blocked based on income, race, immigration status, age, sexuality, gender, or where they live. We decry the crisis of maternal death in this country and to the disproportionate impact on Black women.

In January of this year, as a member of the RFLC, Walker signed a letter and signed a letter “on the 46th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade” that stated:

“As a cohort of 326 state legislators from 46 states, we recognize the urgency of this moment and the obligation we have to protect our constitutional right to abortion, to recognize where the rights established under Roe v. Wade have fallen short for many of our communities, and to take action to ensure all people can access the reproductive health care they need with dignity and respect. Where some see a political opportunity to erode or dismantle Roe v. Wade, we see a duty to fight back against the ongoing assaults on our rights and a chance to re-envision what reproductive health, rights, and justice should look like in the United States.”

Walker’s promotion of grave moral evils has extended to social media as well.  In a Facebook post on September 10, 2019, Delegate Walker praised the installation of a homosexual “pride” crosswalk in Morgantown, WV.

On March 20, 2019, Delegate Walker posted a photo in support of childhood transsexuality.  Note the sign on the far left that says, “Support Trans Kids,” the black t-shirt that says, “Protect Trans Kids” and the sign in orange that says, “Trans kids are kids.”

In June of this year, Walker was featured on page 20 of the 2019 Pride Guide, published by WV Pride.  Under the headline, “WV PRIDE “POWER OF ONE,” the write-up on Walker states: “She was Elected to the House of Delegates in 2018 and honored by Rainbow Pride of West Virginia as the 2019 Delegate Danielle Walker Power of One recipient.”

Walker became the interim executive director for CARE in August of 2019, to run the organization upon the resignation of founding director Gabrielle Chapman.  But the change in leadership was simply a continuation of Chapman’s already pro-abortion, pro-homosexual activities.

On Feb. 8, 2018, while still CARE’s executive director, Chapman wrote a post critical of a pro-life vote in West Virginia, voicing her support for decriminalized abortion.

She also posted in favor of transsexual activism on Oct. 22, 2018.

CARE’s policy and community coordinator is Ashir Coillberg. CARE’s website states that Coillberg is a “queer, trans,” activist and is active in both the Jewish and pagan communities, and lives with “their wife” and is “expecting their first child.”

Coillberg wrote the following Facebook post on May 30, 2019 detailing membership in the mayor’s LGBTQ working group:

Coillberg also posted on Facebook in favor of abortion rights on September 26, 2018 by urging West Virginian’s to vote against the pro-life Amendment 1 since “Reproductive rights are LGBTQ rights, reproductive rights are human rights.”

CARE is yet another clear-cut case of an organization that never should have been funded in the first place. Yet, somehow, this organization made it through CCHD’s “rigorous” screening process.

It’s been nearly 10 years since the CCHD’s Review and Renewal, which was to be a firming up of the CCHD’s standards and oversight that even formally apologized “for the violations of CCHD policies by these groups and for the damage and confusion they have caused.”  It is clear that the Review and Renewal has been a complete failure, which is why we are calling on bishops to completely withdraw their diocese from the annual, national CCHD collection.

In partnership with Life Site News, we have created and launched a petition that you can sign, asking your own bishop to end your diocese’s relationship with the CCHD.  The link to the petition is here, or, you can simply click the red button below.