22/03/2010
As Foreign Ministers meet in Gatineau next week, international storm clouds are already gathering over Canada on the issue of G8 summit planning and reproductive rights.
The government is being warned not to backpedal on previous commitments to support full world access to family planning by 2015. Leading the charge is none other than Maureen McTeer, the spouse of former prime minister Joe Clark.
McTeer, the Canadian representative for the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood, is spearheading an international effort to ensure that the June Muskoka meeting includes specific commitments on sexual and reproductive health and rights.
Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon set off international alarm bells last week when he said the G8 meeting will not deal "in any way, shape or form with family planning. Indeed the purpose of the meeting is to save lives." His comments run directly counter to Canada's previous position and the views of most medical experts on how to improve women's health.
Sadly, the minister was not operating in a vacuum but reflecting the stated position of his government. Canada's minister for international cooperation has reportedly said that Canada' maternal health agenda "will not address unsafe abortions in developing countries or support access to family planning and contraception."
But Prime Minister Stephen Harper later contradicted Cannon later in the week when he promised that the federal government would include contraception programs in its maternal health and foreign aid initiative, but said it is not open to discussing abortion.
In the Prime Minister's initial G8 announcement on maternal health, he stressed "clean water, inoculations and better nutrition, as well as the training of health care workers to care for women and deliver babies."
No mention of the critical role of family planning in this healthcare continuum, even though one-third of all maternal deaths could be prevented by better access to birth control.
Normally, the lead up to the G8 and G20 are rife with opportunities for the ruling party to grow its support base locally and nationally.
Instead, the issue of reproductive rights threatens to derail any Conservative momentum with women voters.
McTeer is currently circulating a 13-page "Call to Action: Maternal and Child Health at the G8 Summit," prepared by Action Canada for Population and Development.
A widely-respected international expert on reproductive issues, McTeer has spent the last 30 years working on women's health. Steely determination, with the unabashed support of a former prime minister, makes McTeer a formidable foe.
The government seems to be barreling toward a series of G8 confrontations, which run the serious risk of damaging Canada's fragile international reputation.
The document being circulated by McTeer, paints a grim picture of the current world status on reproductive rights.
The paper is being distributed to development, human rights and women's organizations around the world. The hope is that they will pressure their governments to keep "sexual and reproductive health and rights" on the agenda.
Canadians, who have enjoyed unfettered reproductive rights for more than two decades, would be shocked to learn of the absence of family planning in many parts of the world.
According to the document, some 215 million women do not even have access to basic birth control. Recent research by the Guttmacher Institute and the United Nations Population Fund showed that maternal mortalities could be slashed by 70 per cent and newborn deaths halved if family planning and maternal and newborn health funding were doubled.
The study also claimed that combined investments actually achieve the same outcomes for $1.5-billion less than funding of maternal and newborn health services alone.
Despite these findings, the Harper Conservatives seem willing to ignore the obvious link between maternal health and safe access to birth control.
Not if McTeer has her way.
She urges G8 leaders, to "build on—not to backtrack on—previous initiatives. Sexual and reproductive health and rights, particularly access to family planning, including contraception, must be part of the initiative."
Summits usually provide venues for prime ministers to rub elbows with other world leaders, with residual domestic benefits. They also present some political risk. Who could forget the pepper-spray fallout from Canada's hosting of the G-20 in Vancouver?
Pepper spray pales in comparison to the international backlash Canada can expect if we turn back the clock on family planning.
The current silence from the Prime Minister is deafening.
Source: S. Copps, The Hill Times, 22 March 2010 or http://www.ippf.or/
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