Don't ignore reproductive rights

							                                 Ottawa Citizen
                         Monitoreo de la prensa canadiense
                          Embajada de México en Canadá


Fecha: Jueves 11 de febrero de 2010
Página: A13
Reportero(a): Elizabeth Payne Gwenn

Don’t ignore reproductive rights
This government can’t talk about improving global maternal health
without talking about access to contraception and abortion
    W hat Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said about women’s reproductive rights and
abortion last week would be considered neither new nor controversial in most G8 countries.
Or in this one, a few years ago. That it is creating a windstorm of controversy in Canada in
2010 speaks volumes about how polarized our politics have become.
    In some circles, Ignatieff is being called suicidal for wading, uninvited, into the abortion
debate by saying he hopes Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s maternal health initiative will
include women’s reproductive rights, namely access to contraception and abortion. Given
that the standard Canadian political position on abortion is don’t ask, don’t tell, perhaps the
reaction is not so surprising.
    But I would not expect a Canadian politician to do less. It has been decades since
Canadian women were denied access to contraception and abortion. The ability to decide
when to have children is directly linked to women’s physical and financial wellbeing. It is the
reason women now dominate law schools and medical schools in Canada and are an
increasingly powerful force in the business and professional worlds.
    For Canada to lead a G8 campaign promoting maternal and child health in the poorest
parts of the world that ignores reproductive rights would be both counterproductive and
paternalistic. What is more, it would likely increase abortion rates, particularly unsafe
abortions which currently kill tens of thousands of women around the world every year,
among other unintended consequences.
    Although the details of the initiative announced by Harper at Davos, Switzerland, have
not yet been spelled out, there are reasons for concern that Canada’s motherhood initiative
is about less than meets the eye.
    A major international campaign that does not address reproductive issues can have the
effect of actively denying women access to birth control and safe abortions — that is what
happened when the George W. Bush administration stopped funding groups such as
Planned Parenthood that offered abortion services. Some research indicates that the so-

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called Mexico City Policy that made it illegal for non-government agencies to use money
from the U. S. Agency for International Development to either provide safe abortion or
lobby for it, resulted in both an increase in unsafe abortions and an increased spread of
HIV/AIDS in countries where family planning clinics were closed.
    The Obama administration has reversed that policy and once again begun funding
international family planning programs. In a speech last month, Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton said the U.S. government had rejoined the world consensus that “access to
reproductive health care is a basic right.
    “Keeping women and men in ignorance and denied the access to services actually
increases the rate of abortion,” she said in defence of funding family planning.
    Is Canada about to follow the much-criticized Bush strategy when it comes to
reproductive issues?
    The International Planned Parenthood Federation, target of the U.S. policy, is worried it
is. Canada, through the Canadian International Development Agency, has funded Planned
Parenthood for decades. But its application to renew a $ 6-million-a-year contract with
CIDA has been languishing on International Cooperation Minister Bev Oda’s desk for
months. Meanwhile, backbench Conservative MP Brad Trost has launched a petition to
stop government funding to Planned Parenthood because it provides abortion services.
    Harper is right to call on the world’s wealthy countries to, finally, do something about
the deaths of more than half a million women every year in pregnancy and of nearly four
million babies who die every year shortly after birth. But the details are crucial and
mouthing vague motherhood phrases about how this will be done is not good enough.
    Oda danced around the issue during a recent CBC radio interview. When asked
whether the initiative would include a commitment to contraception, abortion and
reproductive rights, she said this: “Our focus is to ensure that mothers are going to be
healthy and have safe births so they can give birth to healthy children. To widen the issue,
to make it political, I don’t think is” helpful.
    Oda talked about ensuring that proper nutrition, clean For Canada to lead a G8
campaign promoting maternal and child health in the poorest parts of the world that ignores
reproductive rights would be counterproductive and paternalistic. And it would likely
increase abortion rates, particularly unsafe abortions. water and front-line healthcare
services are made available to mothers throughout the developing world — all of which will
make a difference. Many of the 550,000 maternal deaths that occur every year could be
easily prevented.
    But those who have worked for decades trying to make it safer for women to give birth
and to live in some of the world’s poorest countries say that family planning must be part of

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the package if you really want to reduce maternal mortality rates around the world and to
make women and their babies healthier.
    For the Canadian government to avoid the issue because it is politically unpalatable,
would be both unjust and irresponsible. To stop funding international organizations that
offer abortions would also represent a major policy change for Canada — one that would
represent one standard for domestic health care and another standard for our support of
international health care.
    If that is what motherhood means to this government, Canadians have a right to know.




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