Guardian UK: Progressive Canada is slipping away

[marmar]

Progressive Canada is slipping away
Canada has decided to make maternal health in developing nations a priority – but why is abortion funding not included?

Colin Horgan
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 1 June 2010 13.00 BST


An interesting statistic was released last week in Canada: According to the Sex Information and Education Council, the nation's teenage birth and abortion rate fell 36.9% between 1996 and 2006. The lead researcher of the report, Alexander McKay, told the Globe and Mail that the decline reflected Canada's attitude toward the issue – that the more societies have an "accepting attitude" to teenage pregnancy, the less of it one finds. As for abortion, McKay said: "It's not that young women are viewing abortion as a form of birth control. Rather they do view it as an acceptable – although regrettable – way of dealing with an unwanted pregnancy when it occurs."

As the host government for the upcoming G8 and G20 meetings near the end of June in Ontario, Stephen Harper's Conservative party has planned to make funding for maternal health in developing nations a priority topic. However, that discussion will take place with the knowledge that Canada's financial contribution to family planning programmes will not include funding for abortions. That is to say, the Tories are not about to allow women from developing nations the same kind choice that women in Canada have. Why not?

In late April, when he was asked how the federal Liberal party might try to shake itself from its current stagnant position in the polls, Ekos Research pollster Frank Graves made some interesting remarks to Lawrence Martin of the Globe and Mail. Graves said that he'd told the Liberals to:

"Invoke a culture war. Cosmopolitanism versus parochialism, secularism versus moralism, Obama versus Palin, tolerance versus racism and homophobia, democracy versus autocracy. If the cranky old men in Alberta don't like it, too bad. Go south and vote for Palin."

The cranky (not so old) men didn't like it. Graves appeared on the CBC's Power & Politics to explain his quote and debated with former Tory spokesman Kory Teneycke, who called his comments "offensive". A brief national media debate followed, centered on the notion of a Canadian "culture war" – one that might pit Canuck versus Canuck on the nation's ideological battleground – as if it were an unheard-of possibility. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/may/31/canada-abortion-maternal-health

[Captain Hilts]

1. Thanks for pointing this out to me. I missed it and will pass it onto some friends in Canada. nt