The number of faith-based conservative EU lobbyists in Brussels is growing and the Roman Catholic Church is itself a big spender.
But US billionaires, some of whom are friends of American president Donald Trump, are also paying anti-abortion groups in Europe tens of millions of dollars to influence policy and law.
The US groups have not scored any big wins yet.
But they are acting in concert and they are just getting started, European MPs who work on sexual and reproductive...
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Blaz Zgaga is a Slovenian investigative journalist and co-author of the book "In the Name of the State", on weapons smuggling in the Balkans in the 1990s. He now works with Nacional, a weekly magazine in Croatia, and on European Investigative Collaborations projects.
With additional reporting by Manuel Rico and Angel Munarriz (Infolibre) and Roeland Termote and Stijn Cools (De Standaard).
This story was made possible with support from the Journalism Fund.
An earlier version of the article was published by Nacional.
Michael Bird writes for The Black Sea new website and is the co-author of previous pieces in this series, such as Why 60 Romanian hospitals are refusing abortions.
Blaz Zgaga is a Slovenian investigative journalist and co-author of the book "In the Name of the State", on weapons smuggling in the Balkans in the 1990s. He now works with Nacional, a weekly magazine in Croatia, and on European Investigative Collaborations projects.
With additional reporting by Manuel Rico and Angel Munarriz (Infolibre) and Roeland Termote and Stijn Cools (De Standaard).
This story was made possible with support from the Journalism Fund.
An earlier version of the article was published by Nacional.