A pro-life MP in the UK has admitted that he profits from the sale of abortion pills in Indonesia.
Jacob Rees-Mogg has a £5 million investment fund in Indonesian company Kalbe Farma.
Kalbe Farma produces pills to treat stomach ulcers but it is widely recognised that the medicines are also used to induce terminations in black market clinics.
Abortion has been illegal in most cases in Indonesia since 1992.
Speaking to The Mirror, Rees-Mogg said that he is aware of the company’s production of the pills and that he does not see his investment in Kalbe Farma as hypocritical.
“It would be wrong to pretend that I like it but the world is not always what you want it to be.
“Kalbe Farma obeys Indonesian law so it’s a legitimate investment and there’s no hypocrisy. The law in Indonesia would satisfy the Vatican.”
Rees-Mogg opposes abortion in all circumstances including rape as he believes that “life begins at the point of conception.”
He is also against gay marriage.
The MP has not invested any of his own money in the firm, but he has used that of his own fund, Somerset Capital Management.
He said that although the money is not his, he does profit from the investment “in a round-about way.”
“It’s not my money in these investments and I profit from the total amount of client money we hold, not the investments we make.”
Rees-Mogg also said that abortion pills are not something he would “want to invest in personally,” but that he had to act according to his investors’ needs.
“I don’t manage the funds and haven’t done so since I became an MP.
“But the funds have to be run in accordance with the requirements of the investors and not according to my religious beliefs.”
Rees-Mogg is a member of the British Conservative party. He was elected to parliament in 2010.
