Michael Ignatieff challenges PM to back aid for abortion
Karen
February 03, 2010
Susan Delacourt
OTTAWA–Prime Minister Stephen Harper should support safe-abortion
programs abroad if he's serious about improving the lives of women,
Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff says.
Ignatieff threw down the challenge as a test of Harper's resolve on
his new foreign-aid commitment to maternal health in the face of a
Conservative party with significant pockets of anti-abortion
sentiment.
"We don't want to have women dying because of botched procedures. We
don't want to have women dying in misery," Ignatieff told reporters
Tuesday after Parliament Hill meetings on international development.
"We've had a pro-choice consensus in this area for a couple of
generations and we want to hold it."
The Prime Minister announced in the Star and at Davos, Switzerland,
last week that the health of mothers and children would be the focus
of Canada's attention at this summer's G8 meeting in this country.
Dimitri Soudas, a spokesman for Harper, said Tuesday it was "sad" and
"pathetic" for Ignatieff to be trying to turn the health of women
abroad into a "political football."
"This has nothing to do with abortion. This has nothing to do with gay
marriage. This has nothing to do with capital punishment," Soudas
said, listing several other hot-button issues within Conservative
ranks. "This is about saving lives of vulnerable children and mothers
in the developing world."
Soudas would not say, however, whether access to safe abortions was
included in the maternal-health problems Harper wants to address. Nor
did he rule it out.
Harper also has not specifically said what his new "top priority"
would entail in terms of aid dollars, but increased support for access-
to-abortion programs could be a tough sell for him within his own
Conservative caucus, some of whom strongly oppose abortion.
Liberals issued a release following Ignatieff's news conference,
listing more than a dozen Conservative MPs and ministers speaking out
against abortion. In the release, Liberals asked Harper to "keep
ideology out" of his new foreign-aid priority and Ignatieff hinted
strongly he feared this Conservative government, like Republicans in
the U.S. over the past decade, would ban aid to abortion-related
programs in the developing world.
As well, Liberals believe any help for abortion abroad would raise
questions about Conservatives' support at home for organizations that
support abortions.
For instance, it was revealed this week that the Canadian Federation
for Sexual Health, a pro-choice group, has seen its federal funding
drop under the Conservatives, from more than $1 million in 2006 to
$9,381 in 2009.
Officials with the federation, formerly known as Planned Parenthood
Federation of Canada, downplayed suggestions they are the victim of a
pro-life agenda in government. Instead, they say they've been hit by a
funding crunch that has squeezed many organizations.
But they said a greater focus – and money – aimed at family planning
is essential to making Harper's maternal-health agenda succeed.
Jolanta Scott-Parker, the federation's executive director, said their
funding from Health Canada and the Canadian International Development
Agency was aimed at specific projects, mostly overseas, such as sexual
and reproductive health services, education and information for youth.
She said most of those projects wrapped up in the past few years,
accounting for the drop in government money.
"Would we like to see the federal government investing in sexual and
reproductive health in a much more comprehensive way in Canada?
Absolutely," she said.