Philanthropists send millions to University of California for abortion training

The University of California system, which trains in abortion, has been heavily funded by pro-abortion philanthropists such as Warren Buffett's Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation (STBF) among others.

Billionaire Warren Buffett made his vast wealth as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway and in 1964, he founded the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation (STBF), named after his first wife. "It supports organizations that provide reproductive health care and access to contraception and abortion around the world. Susie Buffett, 71, is its board chair and Peter Buffett, 66, is a board member," wrote Associated Press (AP).

Key Takeaways:

• Pro-abortion philanthropists, such as the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, are funneling millions into the University of California (UC) system for its abortion training programs.

• The Buffett Foundation, which is steeped in abortion activism, has been the primary financier of the UCSF Ryan Residency Training Program in Abortion.

• Other top pro-abortion donors to the UC system include the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The Details:

Buffett's Abortion Activism Begins

Warren Buffett's pro-abortion activism can largely be attributed to Charles Munger, an investment partner and close friend at the company. Buffett and Munger financed the Los Angeles Clergy Consultation Services (CCS), an underground network of ministers which assisted women in obtaining illegal abortions prior to Roe v. Wade.

As previously documented by Live Action News, Buffett was instrumental in creating a “church” as a front for referring women for illegal abortions prior to Roe— a “church” that eventually merged into Planned Parenthood Los Angeles.

In 2021, Inside Philanthropy described Buffett as a “vanguard” of abortion access, writing that the Buffett Foundation was the  “foremost player in th[e] space” of  “abortion access and reproductive health and rights in the U.S.,” along with the Packard and Hewlett Foundations.

Sugar Daddy of Pro-abortion Movement

The Buffett Foundation was among the original investors in Danco Laboratories, the U.S. abortion pill manufacturer. Today, Buffett Foundation dollars flow to Planned Parenthood, Gynuity Health Projects (which conducted clinical trials of the abortion pill), and many groups tied to the abortion pill.

“The Buffett Foundation… made at least $2 million in interest-free loans to the Population Council… according to tax documents filed in 1995. That money was in turn used to conduct clinical trials of RU-486 [the abortion pill],” the Washington Post wrote in 2000.

The Foundation also funds:

• American College of Obstetricians and Gynecology (ACOG)

• DKT International (worldwide distributor of abortion pills).

• Planned Parenthood

• Society of Family Planning (SFP)

among many others.

The BILLIONAIRES behind ABORTION

According to ProPublica, the Buffett Foundation "ranked fourth among family foundations in 2014 in terms of giving" and was known for its "focus on abortion access, training and more recently, prevention. It’s also known for its secrecy, often appearing under grant acknowledgements only as 'an anonymous donor.'"

"From 2001 to 2014, it contributed more than $1.5 billion to abortion causes...a track record that led one foe to call Warren Buffett the “sugar daddy of the entire pro-abortion movement," ProPublica wrote.

Buffett funds University of California abortion training

The Ryan Residency Training Program in Abortion, located at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), boasts training over 7,000 abortion providers since its founding in 1999.

In 2024 that translated to "1,354 residents this year out of 5,962 OB-GYN residents nationwide," Medical Marketing and Media online reported.

UCSF's Ryan Residency abortion training program was instituted at a time when providers were aging out, something referred to as the "greying" of abortionists. In response, Warren Buffett dedicated his massive wealth to guarantee a new crop of abortionists would be trained.

In 2018, the University of California wrote

The single issue that motivates the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation’s $78 million in funding to UC over the last six years is family planning. Of this amount, $52 million was provided to support the Kenneth J. Ryan Residency Training Program, a program based at the department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at UCSF that provides family planning training for Ob-Gyn residents at medical centers and hospitals throughout the United States and Canada. About $5.3 million of this amount was directed to residents at UC’s other medical schools at Davis, UCLA, San Diego and Irvine so that they could participate in this residency program.

In addition, the Foundation sponsored the $8.6 million [thoroughly debunked] Turnaway Study at UCSF’s Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health Center, examining the health and socioeconomic outcomes for women with unintended pregnancies.

In 2016, Mother Jones claimed, “Buffett’s main academic partner (receiving at least $88 million from 2001 to 2014) has been the University of California-San Francisco” — home of the Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health and the Ryan Residency abortion training program. New York Times Magazine also confirmed Buffett as the primary financier of the Bixby Center’s Ryan Residency Program at UCSF, writing in part:

According to Access Philanthropy, a research institute that focuses on the giving preferences of foundations and corporate donors, family planning is one of the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation’s main purposes. The foundation’s nonprofit 990 tax form shows that in 2008, Planned Parenthood and its affiliates in the U.S. received about $45 million; the international arm of the organization got about $8 million. There is no line item for the Ryan program or the Family Planning Fellowship. But the foundation paid out around $50 million to universities with one or both of the programs.

...The foundation could have been straightforward about its work from the start. Instead, according to some doctors involved with the programs, a low profile eased the way for universities to sign on for the fellowship and the Ryan.

In the past few years, Grantmakers reports millions more funneled to the Regents of the University of California by the Buffett Foundation.

Warren Buffett Retires

Buffett officially retired as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway earlier this year, leaving his vast wealth to his children.

"The Giving Pledge co-founder will distribute 1.5 million shares of Berkshire Hathaway Class B stock to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, and 400,000 shares each to the Sherwood, Howard G. Buffett, and NoVo foundations," Philanthropy News Digest reported last year.

According to Capital Research "NoVo has also supported nonprofits that advocate in favor of abortion as well as the expansion of contraceptive protections both locally and abroad."

Additional UC Funders

Other top pro-abortion donors include the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The UniversityPhilanthropy.com reviewed Packard Foundation giving between 2014-18 and found that "the Packard Foundation has consistently awarded 14% of donations annually to universities and higher education institutions. In the last five reported years it has given $220.1m in grants to 104 universities in 12 countries," they wrote.

"The University of California, Berkeley received the largest sum from the Foundation ($15.4m), followed by Stanford University ($14.4m) and University of California, San Francisco ($11.9m)," they wrote.

Since that time, Packard has granted millions to UC Institutions.

The Ryan Residency Program at UCSF has received direct funding from Anderson Rogers Foundation Inc as well as Ting Tsung And Wei Fong Chao Foundation.

Between 1999-2009 grants for abortion made up 7 percent of Bixby's funding, an estimated $19.6 million in that timespan. Over the years, the Bixby Center has also been funded by multiple groups as well as the US taxpayer.

These include:

• William & Flora Hewlett Foundation

• Mary Wohlford Foundation

• 128 Collective Foundation

• Freedom Together Foundation

• Marty Tomberg Charitable Fund 

Bixby's annual reports reveal:

• 2014: nearly $22 million dollars (52 percent) of Bixby’s revenue came from the taxpayer, although the report does not specify whether the funds were state or federal. 

• 2015: although Government dollars made up only 18 percent of Bixby’s revenue, it totaled over $18 million in taxpayer dollars. 

• 2016: over $27M (51% of Bixby's revenue) came from state and federal dollars.

In addition, Live Action News previously documented how billions of taxpayer funds are being funneled into the larger University of California system.

The Bottom Line:

Universities which train, commit, or promote abortion are already funded by pro-abortion profiteers, so why should the USA taxpayer be forced to shell out their hard earned dollars as well?