Liberal MP Iqra Khalid allocated more than $50,000 in federal summer job funding last year to a group known for its dogged opposition to abortion rights, despite running under the banner of a “resolutely pro-choice” party.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau vowed in the last election campaign to protect reproductive rights and said that all candidates running under the Liberal party banner had to support a women’s right to choose. However, Khalid — a new MP as of the 2015 election in Mississauga-Erin Mills — appears to have distributed $56,695 to the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform in the form of a grant under the Canada Summer Jobs program.

Khalid is not the only MP to have directed funding to the anti-abortion group over the past five years, or to other groups with similar agendas such as Alberta Pro-Life, Campaign Life, Life Site News and Priests for Life. Since 2011, about $3.5 million in federal funding has gone to groups which lobby against abortion access, according to grant data collected and shared by the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada earlier this week.

Khalid does appear to be the only Liberal MP to have directed that level of funding to an anti-abortion group — other than known pro-life Liberal John McKay, who directed grants worth $2,610 and $2,983 to Campaign Life activities in his Scarborough-Guildwood riding in 2014-2015 and 2015-2016.

Neither of those grants appears to have been renewed since McKay was re-elected in 2015, while Khalid’s was issued just last year.

McKay was a notable exception to the May 2014 edict announced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that anyone looking to run under the Liberal party banner in the 2015 election had to be prepared to vote pro-choice on any bills dealing with abortion.

“The party that we’re building, and that we’re continuing to build as we form government, will be resolutely pro-choice,” Trudeau told reporters at the time.

Khalid, who unseated Conservative incumbent Bob Dechert in 2015, won with 50 per cent of the vote in her Greater Toronto Area riding while Dechert received 40 per cent.

When iPolitics requested clarification from Khalid’s office as to whether the funding might be some kind of legacy grant issued by her Conservative predecessor, officials referred the request to the spokesperson for Employment Minister Patty Hajdu.

“Our government has been unequivocal in our support of a woman’s fundamental right to choose,” said Matt Pascuzzo, press secretary for Hajdu. “The minister is currently looking into this matter and we will have a resolution shortly. We will continue advancing gender equality and standing up for a woman’s right to choose‎.”

Following publication, Pascuzzo provided a second response saying the 2016 grant was a mistake and would not happen again.

“Any funding provided to an organization that works to limit women’s reproductive rights last summer was an oversight,” he said. “That’s why this year we fixed the issue and no such organizations will receive funding from any constituencies represented by Liberal MPs.”

Kathy Dawson, a member of the board of directors for the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada, said she is extremely troubled by Khalid issuing the grant to a group like the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform and stressed the need for stronger policies to prevent the government from allowing any funding under the program to go to political groups that advocate against abortion.

In particular, Dawson pointed to the need for a tighter set of criteria to be used to determine what kind of work is eligible for the job grants.

“They need to firm up their policies and procedures to prevent these political groups from getting access to this money,” she said. “These are supposed to provide employable skills to youth and long-term job prospects possibly with their experience, and I question if we want to government involved in funding these.”

The Canada Summer Jobs program provides federal funding to non-profits, public sector employers and small businesses with the goal of creating summer jobs for students between the ages of 15 and 30.

Each MP assesses applications for funding from groups in their ridings and decides which ones should receive grants.

Applications for this summer are currently being assessed.