PM sets double standard in excluding abortions

Sarah Dowswell, The Ottawa Citizen:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's cold-blooded refusal to fund safe abortion in developing countries as part of Canada's "signature" maternal and child health-care initiative championed at the G8 meeting this week in Halifax begs a crucial question.

His stance sharply contradicts Canada's commitment to UN Millennium Development Goal 5, which includes access to safe abortion as part of the range of reproductive health services required to reduce the unacceptably and unnecessarily high rate of maternal deaths in developing countries.

Current evidence indicates the extent of the problem. The data are clear and is well known. There are 76 million unintended pregnancies each year in developing countries, 19 million of which result in unsafe abortions. Thirteen out of each 100 of these 19 million desperate women will die.

As an added atrocity, rape has become a standard weapon of war, resulting in countless unwanted pregnancies, HIV/AIDS, trauma, stigma and death.

These women need our help. As a Canadian speaking out, I am trying to give them a voice.

By refusing to support their access to safe abortion as an integral part of Canada's maternal health initiatives, Harper has created an insidious double standard: they are denied a service legally available to Canadian women.

Are their lives less valuable than our own?