Bang for the Buck

A few days ago, there was this story about fetus fetishists being "upset" over funding of morning-after pills under the Maternal Health Initiative. (Note to editors: the word "stupid" is only one character more than "upset" and way more accurate.)

Anti-abortion activists say the federal government has broken its pledge to leave abortion out of its maternal health initiative, just as Prime Minister Stephen Harper wrapped up an international summit Friday with a fresh commitment of $3.5 billion to improve maternal health around the world.

The issue is the morning-after pill, a.k.a. emergency contraception. The morans are still claiming that it is an "abortifacient." It is not. There is no scientific controversy about this.

The morans are simply lying. Again.

But buried in the same article was this bit of info.

International Planned Parenthood notes that of $2.28 billion spent as of March 2014, only 0.55 per cent went to family planning, despite the fact that 222 million women around the world lack access to “a range of modern methods of contraception.”

Back in 2010, when Motherhood Steve was rolling out his plans for the Women of the World, there was a MASSIVE brouhaha over whether any family planning would be funded atall atall. Leave aside abortion. Motherhood Steve wouldn't touch condoms, b.c. pills, diaphragms, implants, etc. etc.

That idiocy blew up real good on him and Canada seemed to relent.

Now we find out that a measly 0.55% is being spent on family planning.

Let's consult the Steve's good buddies at the Gates Foundation, shall we?

However, more than 220 million women in developing countries who don’t want to get pregnant lack access to contraceptives and voluntary family planning information and services. Less than 20 percent of women in Sub-Saharan Africa and barely one-third of women in South Asia use modern contraceptives. In 2012, an estimated 80 million women in developing countries had an unintended pregnancy; of those women, at least one in four resorted to an unsafe abortion.

So, as always, we come back to square one of Abortion Reduction Bingo. Hate abortion? Support contraception. Support all kinds of contraception. Support as much contraception as possible.

And you don't have to hate abortion to support contraception.

Again, from the Gates Foundation, the benefits are huge.

Voluntary family planning is one of the most cost-effective investments a country can make in its future. Every dollar spent on family planning can save governments up to 6 dollars that can be spent on improving health, housing, water, sanitation, and other public services.

If my math (and calculator) are correct, 0.55% of $2.28 billion is just about $12.5 million (or about six junkets to the Middle East for Motherhood Steve and his pals and lackeys).

But multiply that by 6 and we get $75 million to spend on other health needs, water, sanitation etc.

OK, stick with me here. What if we spent a whopping 1% on family planning? Or, hey, let's go crazy and spend 2% on family planning!

That would be amount to $300 million in savings to be put toward other health needs in desperately strapped countries.

That strikes me -- admittedly NOT a trained economist -- as pretty damned good bang for the buck.

Butbutbut, the base would be "upset."

So, screw you, poor women. Who the hell do you think you are, wanting to decide when and how many pregnancies you want or can handle?

Canadian fetus fetishists will decide that for you.

Shame on the Ugly Canadians

Just when you think the Harper Government simply cannot further embarrass us on the world stage or horrify us at home, there's this shameful news.

International Development Minister Christian Paradis says the government will not fund overseas projects that allow war rape victims and child brides to obtain an abortion.

To its credit, the NDP jumped in with appropriate outrage.

“It is simply shameful to see Conservatives putting their ideology ahead of helping these vulnerable women,” said Official Opposition International Development Critic Hélène Laverdière (Laurier--Sainte-Marie). “This is about helping some of the world’s most at risk women, it’s a shame Minister Paradis and the Conservatives aren’t willing to put aside their own narrow agenda.”

This announcement runs counter to the Foreign Affairs Minister’s recent emphasis on the plight of child brides.

“In the developing world, complications in childbirth are the number one cause of death for girls aged 15-19,” said Official Opposition Foreign Affairs critic Paul Dewar. “Just last week Minister Baird told the United Nations that ‘these girls are children; they quite simply are not ready to be parents.’ So why are Conservatives turning their back on them now?”

As we've reported here before, the consequences to victims of war rape are heart-rending and enraging. Victims are shunned by their families and villages and women who are impregnated by rape are rejected by their husbands, if they have them, and so are left to raise a child alone in poverty, creating yet another victim.

But hey, this government is aaaallll about the girls and women, right? That's why Motherhood Steve led the charge on the Maternal Health Initiative, right?

How's that going, by the way, you ask?

Not so shit hot according to Joyce Arthur writing in today's Rabble.

There's been some progress overall on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), of which maternal health is one, but things are not so rosy for women and children.

A great deal of progress has been achieved across all eight goals, but many gaps remain, particularly those relating to women and children (MDG 3, 4, 5). Unfortunately, improvements to women's equality and rights, including access to reproductive health services, generally lag behind most other targets. Since reducing child mortality depends on raising women's status and saving their lives, that goal also has fallen far short in some parts of the world. Each year, more than a million children are left motherless because of women dying during pregnancy or childbirth. These children are up to 10 times more likely to die prematurely than those living in families with a mother.

So, what is Canada doing? Hard to say. It's kind of confusing.

When Canada hosted the G8/G20 summit in 2010, Prime Minister Stephen Harper put maternal and child health front and centre, with resulting pledges of $7.3 billion from participating countries and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. At least $24 billion was needed, however, according to aid groups. Further, Harper had to be shamed into including funding for family planning services in Canada's contribution, and he refused outright to fund safe abortion in countries where it's legal.

Harper decided that Canada's money would be spent on three main needs in 10 countries (seven in Africa): strengthening health systems, reducing the burden of disease, and improving nutrition. So far, it appears that only a tiny portion of Canada's portion of the G8 funding ($2.85 billion) has been spent on family planning, although it's difficult to figure out exactly where all the money is going. Several Google searches produced these tidbits: $20 million for free prenatal care in Haiti, and undisclosed amounts for the UN Population Fund and a sexual and reproductive health project in Bangladesh; $6 million for the International Planned Parenthood Federation (for sex education, family planning and post-abortion counselling); $75 million for the Muskoka Initiative Partnership Program (to strengthen health systems, reduce disease, and improve nutrition); and most recently, $203 million to provide immunizations, basic health care, and community services to make childbirth and pregnancy safer.

Not only is Canada cherry-picking its aid for maternal/child health services, it attaches strings to it. Money can only be spent as per Canada's own goals and guidelines, giving little or no say to smaller groups on the ground in the target country. This makes it far less likely that the money will be used constructively, or will flow to needed reproductive health services such as post-abortion care.

Joyce's column was published before today's shocker. But she points out the fundamental hypocrisy in the Harper Government's incoherent policy.

Ignoring the need for safe abortion in maternal health programs means disregarding the health and lives of millions of women. It also reveals a fundamental hypocrisy. Conservatives apparently believe that only women who have babies are worthy of support -- but most women having abortions are already mothers. As Rachel Atkins says: "There aren't women who have abortions and women who have babies. Those are the same women at different points in their lives." Abandoning women who need abortions therefore means abandoning mothers and children -- the very demographic Harper has promised to help.

If possible, it seems that the Harper Government has even less empathy for women and girls who are brutalized not just by poverty but by war rape and child marriage.

But hey, there's a Conservative convention coming up and the rabid base is starving for red meat.

Motherhood Steve just offered up the bodies of these women and children to the ravening horde.

We're the Ugly Canadians now. Thanks, Steve.

Fetus Lobby® Stamps Its Widdle Feet

Oh dear. During the recent federal election big-mouth Contempt Party back-bencher Brad Trost bragged that because of his hard work, the International Planned Parenthood Federation would ^NOT be funded under Motherhood Steve's Maternal Health Initiative.

Well, it seems IPPF will get funding but only for projects in countries where abortion is illegal.

Not good enough for Brad-Boy. He threatened last week to make a strong statement and now he has (emphasis mine).

Response to Federal Government's Decision to Fund IPPF

Late in the afternoon of Thursday, September 22nd, I received a phone call from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) about a news story on the CBC that had run earlier in the day. The CBC reported that the federal government had approved funding for the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF).

A PMO staffer explained to me that the story had not been accurate when it ran, but due to the day's events, the CBC story was mostly accurate now. Apparently, six staffers in CIDA Minister Bev Oda's office had been working on a grant to fund IPPF -- and one of them decided to leak the story to the CBC.

Rather than deny the story, a decision was made to rush funding to IPPF to the tune of $6 million over three years. (I was told that the funding letter was sent out at 4 pm that afternoon.)

People have asked how funding IPPF squares with the repeated statement that Canada will not fund abortion internationally. The PMO attempts to square this circle by only permitting IPPF funding to go into countries that ban abortion.

Considering that promoting abortion internationally is central to the identity of IPPF, this sort of political hairsplitting only seems to make sense in the Ottawa bubble. This is a position I totally reject.

Since 2006, Conservative MPs have been asking to have IPPF defunded.

In 2006, our request that federal funding for IPPF be stopped was ignored because we asked politely--and behind closed doors.

In 2009, we became more aggressive and began to take our campaign public.

Many, many Conservative MPs pressed the PMO to stop the funds from flowing. Federal funding did stop for a time. Funds allocated to IPPF were considerably reduced. Furthermore, federal grants for IPPF also had more strings attached.

This only happened because of the pressure applied. This was a real victory.

Bureaucrats have fought for years to keep the status quo and continue the funding of the IPPF that was established by the Liberals.

The battle over the IPPF continues.

Pro-Life politicians have been taught a lesson.

The government only responds to Pro-Life issues and concerns when we take an aggressive stance.

We will apply this lesson.

Hmm. Seems Brad and other members of the Fetus Lobby® don't have quite the clout they thought they did.

Awkward, isn't it?

And doesn't it make you proud to be Canadian? Our Fetus Lobby® cannot defund or recriminalize abortion here, so they try to punish a good organization doing good work for desperately poor women and children in war-torn countries, one of them, Afghanistan, war-torn in our name.

Media coverage: CBC and Macleans, with the title 'Brad Trost Goes Rogue'.

This should be fun. Stevie Peevie does ^NOT enjoy backtalk.

Canada Backs Maternal Health Only in Countries Where Abortion Is Illegal

The screwed-up communications on abortion funding as part of Motherhood Steve's maternal health initiative continue.

Canada will fund an organization that provides family planning services around the world — but only in countries where abortion is illegal in most cases, CBC News has learned.
. . .
Planned Parenthood, which provides an array of sexual and reproductive health services, including abortions, abortion counselling and training for providers, is getting the federal funding after Oda let the agency's previous request sit on her desk for a year without a response, and after a Conservative MP told an anti-abortion group that the government wouldn’t be giving the organization any money.

Oda's decision to approve Planned Parenthood's proposal comes more than a year after Canada was embroiled in controversy over whether to fund abortions as part of a G8 commitment to improve maternal health in developing countries.

The proposal gets around the thorny issue of abortion by asking for money for sex education and contraception services, and does not include abortion services.

The funding is worth $6 million over three years for Planned Parenthood to work in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Mali, Sudan and Tanzania, where abortions are illegal except in cases where the mother's life is at risk.

Ain't that grand? Or would be when Bev Odious gets around to informing IPP.

A spokesman for International Planned Parenthood said Thursday that he was excited to hear about the funding, but that the group hasn't heard "a whisper" about it from the Canadian International Development Agency, Oda's department.

The funding proposal was resubmitted after the 2011 election, Paul Bell said. It had been revised one more time and the organization was waiting for a response.
. . .
In an email Thursday night, Oda's spokesman said CIDA told the group their proposal was approved.

"Today, International Planned Parenthood Federation has been informed that its application for funding has been approved under the Maternal, Newborns and Child Health commitment," Justin Broekema said in a statement.

The CBC link provides a good backgrounder to the whole idiotic story. In short, Canada, where there is NO law on abortion, gets all squishy squeamish about funding abortion in other countries where it is also LEGAL.

Big Daddy Steve and his misogynist minions can try to spin this as standing up for women and children. But Canadian women should be in no doubt. This government does ^NOT see women's issues as any kind of priority. See here for a list of Canadian women's groups gleefully defunded by the patriarchal Contempt Party.

ADDED: Fetus fetishists not happy. Big-mouth Brad Trost to issue statement this week.

Contempt and Cruelty

SHithead's Government is at it again.

Eager to demonstrate that His Contempt Party is *Hard On Crime* Stevie Spiteful and Saint Jason Kenney of Perpetual Heterosexual Virginity are cracking down on what they define as immigration fraud.

Paola Ortiz is the latest victim of their political sturm und drang theatre.

Kenney's Ministry for the Deportation of Dusky-Skinned Folks claim that Ortiz's account of the vicious violence afflicted upon her by her ex-husband cannot be true, since Mexico purportedly and officially *recognizes* rights for women.

What about the volumes of documentation about sadistic sexual assaults and femicides that occur daily in Mexico?

Oh, right. The journalists who chronicle these events are women. And progressives.

Balbulican at Dawg's Blawg has an interesting take on Cons who shrieekkk about violence against women in Moozlim countries - and yet are silent on the situation in Mexico, a country ruled by christo-fascist fundamentalists.

Motherhood Steve: Now Boss of Maternal Health $$$

Could there possibly be a more perfect appointment to the job of co-chair of the maternal health panel than Motherhood Steve?

Motherhood Steve, who while trumpeting his maternal health initiative couldn't be bothered to show up at an international conference on women timed to bolster those very efforts. Not only did he not attend as invited with his (poor) wife, he didn't even bother to reply to the invitation.

Motherhood Steve, who initially excluded family planning from said vaunted initiative (and of course excluded abortion too), after a shit-storm of scathing punditry was forced to walk it back a little to show the world he wasn't a total and complete asshole.

Motherhood Steve, who hates all women except for REAL RIGHTWING ones.

Motherhood Steve, whose religion is perceived to be something of a tiny problemo by Third-World, non-Xian women.

The former head of Canada’s aid program in Afghanistan has expressed concern that Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s religious beliefs are hampering humanitarian efforts.

Speaking to the Straight from Kabul, Nipa Banerjee noted that Harper is a born-again Christian, and she argued that his religious beliefs could be adversely affecting the Canadian International Development Agency’s efforts to help Afghan women.

“It has been said that reproductive health would not be a part of the government and CIDA’s aid programs,” said Banerjee, who led CIDA’s mission in Afghanistan from 2003 to 2006. “And the reproductive-health issue is a major problem in the context of Afghanistan because the maternal mortality rate is very high.”

I could go on about what a fucking great friend of women Stevie Peevie is. But we could just ask his wife about that.

Oh. They aren't living together? Odd.


h/t to 900-ft Jesus.

ADDED: Commenter double nickel called me out on the not living together part. I admit that was lazy not to look harder for a link to the rumours. Here's one.

ADDED AGAIN: ADDED: RH Reality Check takes note: In the Category Of "They Must Be Kidding," the United Nations Puts Stephen Harper in Charge of Accountability of Women's Health.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is anti-choice, tried to eliminate family planning from Canada's international funding for maternal health programs, and generally speaking has adopted global health policies that will further marginalize women and girls.

For some reason, the United Nations took this to mean he would be a great candidate to co-chair a high-level commission to hold countries accountable for spending $40 billion pledged in September to improve women's health.

Unsafe Abortion in Africa

No matter how the figures are expressed, they're appalling.

Here's one set of shockers:

Over 90 % of African women of childbearing age live in countries with limited or no access to safe abortion procedures.

According to the most recent data, of the 5.6 million abortions carried out in the region every year, only 100,000 are performed under safe conditions.

Here is another way to think about that statistic: Every year, about 5.5 million women in Africa risk their lives when they decide to terminate a pregnancy. Drinking bleach or inserting sharp objects into their cervix are only two of the horrifying methods they use. These are not risks any woman should be forced to take.

Or how about this?

IPAS vice-president for Africa Eunice Brookman said nearly 40 women every minute risk their lives and health by undergoing unsafe abortions.

Or this?

More than half of the 67,500 global deaths related to unsafe abortion, occur in Africa and more than half of the women who die from unsafe abortion in Africa are younger than 25 years.

These numbers are in the news now because a three-day conference in Ghana called Keeping Our Promise: Addressing Unsafe Abortion in Africa just wrapped up.

Addressing maternal mortality rates is Goal 5 of the Millennium Development Goals.

Several African countries -- including Zambia, Botswana, Ghana, South Africa, and Zimbabwe have loosened the rules around abortion, but women continue to die there because they could not access services or did not know they existed. (Here's that nifty interactive map showing the legal status of abortion around the world again.)

One example is South Africa, where just six years after the country liberalised its abortion law, the number of women dying from unsafe abortion dropped by 50%, and the number of women suffering serious complications fell as well.

It doesn't take a rocket surgeon to figure out that there are three basic pieces to the seemingly unsolvable puzzle of unsafe abortion in Africa.

1. Liberalize misogynistic laws. This is a job for the African people, but help should be offered and given if accepted.

And there's hope on that front. There are more women parliamentarians in Africa than other third-world areas.

The report’s [UN Human Development Index] new Gender Inequality Index—which tracks gender gaps in reproductive health, empowerment and work-force participation in 138 countries—shows that there are proportionally more women in sub-Saharan African parliaments (17 percent) than in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (12 percent), South Asia (10 percent) or the Arab states.

Well, there's bad news in that report too.

Yet, the region includes seven of the 10 most gender-unequal countries in the world: Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, Central Africa Republic, Mali, Niger and Democratic Republic of the Congo.

2. Provide more contraception and sex education. This we in the West can do.

3. Provide training, supplies, and facilities for abortion services where they are already legal. This we could do too.

Well, we could have if we didn't have misogynist theocrat Stevie Spiteful unaccountably still in office.

Attention, Socons

Referring to the Citizen article I linked to yesterday, Chris Selley writes:

Well, well, well. As the Ottawa Citizen’s Elizabeth Payne reports, Canada’s Minister for International Co-operation now has no problem with funding abortion infrastructure in Third World countries where abortion is legal. But … but … what about all that vote-courting “no Canadian money for abortions” bluster back in April? Aren’t we now risking a terrible “divide [in] the Canadian population,” as Stephen Harper warned? Well, no. Of course not. It was just a ruse. Attention, social conservatives: You’ve been had. Again. And to borrow a line, it’s not going to stop until you wise up.

While the PMO is insisting that nononono, we are NOT funding abortions, the base is pissed.

LieShite:

In a shocking about-face, pro-abortion activist and Minister of International Cooperation Bev Oda has said that the Canadian government is now open to funding abortion under its G8 maternal health plan.
. . .
"Bev Oda worked closely with Planned Parenthood and other pro-abortion groups during the G-8 discussions and made pro-abortion statements at that time,” commented CLC national organizer Mary Ellen Douglas in a press release today. “She eventually conformed to Party policy regarding maternal health at the last moment. It is now very clear that she was merely biding her time."

The Freaks are discussing it too and my Facebook friend Connie writes:

Can someone please explain this to me because it looks an awful lot like the socons just got screwed again.

So, socons, as mothers used to say to daughters back in the neolithic, why would a man buy a cow if he could get the milk for free? You're being milked. And no doubt sneered at to boot.

Yo! Fetus Fetishists! Con Government Does Fund Abortion

Illegal ones, too.

Despite its refusal to consider abortion in its maternal-health plan, the Harper government has given financial support to an international agency that provides abortion illegally in some African countries.

It's a very coy article and one wonders what the point of it is.

In a related story, the Ottawa Citizen claims that Bev Oda has seen the light on family planning.

Fresh from a fact-finding trip to Mali and Mozambique, Stephen Harper's minister in charge of delivering the federal government's $1.1-billion commitment to improving maternal and child health, is singing a different tune, and it is one that includes funding for family planning and even indirect support for abortion, if Canada is asked.

International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda seems to have returned from Africa with a more nuanced vision of how Canada can help reduce hundreds of thousands of maternal deaths every year than the one originally offered by her government.

Here we go with the nuancy shit again.

Asked if you could improve maternal mortality rates without family planning, Oda, during a telephone interview, replied: "Of course not."

She said she has always understood the importance of family planning to reducing maternal mortality, adding that it was a topic of much discussion during her trip in meetings with government officials, health officials, and NGOs in small villages.

Oda said the governments of Mozambique and Mali are both highly supportive of family planning, including abortion in some cases, and they like working with Canada, because it is considered very flexible. "We are not seen as having stipulated certain paradigms ... or having any particular direction. We say 'How can we help? What is the most effective way?'"

Oda said the controversy around Canada's G8 initiative and abortion was largely limited to Canada and is not an issue in either Mali or Mozambique.

Abortion is legal in both countries, when a woman's life is considered to be at risk, which, effectively, means that most women don't have access to abortion.

Still, Oda said Canada would support abortion infrastructure if asked. "As long as it is legal within the country and it's a legal procedure ... if we were asked to help in that way, we would do that."
. . .
But it is refreshing to see a minister from a government that began with an ideologically simplistic view of the issue concede something that those working in the field have long understood: "It's very complicated."

Any bets on when Bev will hit the pavement in front of the proverbial bus when the fetus fetishists find out about this?

Uh-oh.

Bev Oda shows her true colours and should be removed as International Co-operation Minister says Campaign Life Coalition.

TORONTO, Sept. 2 /CNW/ - International Co-operation Minister, Bev Oda has returned to Canada from Africa and has again been stating her personal opinions on her blogs regarding family planning and abortion in third world countries.

In a news article Oda stated that abortion is legal in Mozambique and Mali when a women's life is in danger. She said this means most women do not have access to abortion.

"Bev Oda once again shows her preference on "access to abortion" as she did at the time of the G-8 controversy," said Jim Hughes, National President of Campaign Life Coalition (CLC). "Surely the Prime Minister must have known that a Minister as pro-abortion as Oda would attempt to impose her own views within the implementation of the Canadian goals to provide help to women and children in third world countries."

"Bev Oda worked closely with Planned Parenthood and other pro-abortion groups during the G-8 discussions and made pro-abortion statements at that time. She eventually conformed to Party policy regarding maternal health at the last moment," said Mary Ellen Douglas, CLC National Organizer. "It is now very clear that she was merely biding her time."

Campaign Life Coalition calls on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to remove Bev Oda from her position as Minister of International Co-operation since she cannot seem to follow Conservative Party Policy on the international stage.

Altogether now! (with update)

1, 2, 3, 4, can I see a little more?

Nooooo!

Oxfam’s Big Heads arrived earlier Thursday, bearing surprises and calling on G8 world leaders to keep their promises. To illustrate the importance of maternal health care for third world countries, the leader lookalikes wore faux nude pregnancy suits adorned with maple leaves in the appropriate spots. [...] “There are a thousand women around the world who die every day in pregnancy and child birth. Most are living in abject poverty as it is already,” said Victoria Harnett, the G8/G20 coordinator for Oxfam Canada.

The low-key protest was one of a few planned for Thursday as leaders from Canada, the U.S., Japan, Britain, Italy, France, Italy and Russia prepare to gather here. “The message we want to get across today is that it is absolutely essential that G8 leaders start keeping their promises,” said Harnett, noting that many of the promises made at the 2005 G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland are nearing deadline.

She said among the broken promises is a $50-billion pledge to help the world’s poor by 2010, “and by Oxfam’s calculations they are falling short by $20 billion of that.”

From here. And. Also. The other protest event was staged by 12 members of the Council of Canadians in four canoes, headed for Peninsula Lake inside the G-8 security perimeter.

Minutes after the canoes set out, a helicopter began circling overhead and they were surrounded by an armada of police boats—including two menacing black RCMP Zodiacs—not to mention three other boats carrying media. [...] “We tried to deliver a ‘Scrap the summits’ message to the G8 leaders. We believe the G8 is an undemocratic, illegitimate body and that it is much better to have a meeting like this at the United Nations,” Brent Patterson of the Council of Canadians [...] said since the G8 is sealed up like a drum and protected by thousands of police and soldiers, the water route seemed a good way to make their statement.

“The point of today’s exercise was to try to tell a much broader audience … that a club of eight of the richest countries in the world should not be making decisions that impact the whole world. So that’s our concern and that’s the message we wanted to deliver,” he said.

To echo the sentiment expressed in fern hill's post, I predict that there's going to be a short trip up S**t Creek without a paddle in Stevie Spiteful's future.

UPDATE: Oxfam Canada's blogposts regarding the Big Heads' presence at the G-8, with more photos.

In a nutshell, Stevie's maternal health initiative.

One of our great readers provided a link to this graphic; the moment to display it has arrived. The text says

"Abortions cost Canada millions per year. The Conservatives will do it for less!

Our women's maternal health policies ensure murderous mothers get abortions the way God intended: in back alleys and garages by car mechanics, veterinarians and other beasts of the underworld.

In African conflicts, rape is an effective weapon for genocide, so long as we don't fund abortions.

A woman's life is second to an unborn child. Let God solve complications, not medical professionals.

What choice do you need? a message from the [Harper] government of Canada."

Where's Steve-o?

So, where is Motherhood Steve?

Not here.

The Washington meeting, titled Women Deliver, is timed to bolster the G20 agenda for pumping up funds for maternal health. There are 3,300 advocates and politicians attending from 140 countries, including the heads of major UN agencies, government ministers, parliamentarians, celebrity campaigners and former heads of state.

“It is a surprise that Stephen Harper didn’t come,” said Women Deliver president Jill Sheffield. “He and Laureen Harper were invited and they didn’t even reply. This is his legacy issue. We thought he might at least have sent a message.”

Didn't even reply.

“It’s really astounding,” said Maureen McTeer, a women’s advocate and wife of former Tory prime minister Joe Clark. “Historically Canada has been looked up to in the world, because we believed in issues like this. But (Harper) can’t even take a one-hour flight to Washington to show his solidarity with the world’s women. By not going, he is taking a negative stand.”

. . .

Canada’s presence in Washington so far has been limited to NGO efforts. International co-operation minister Bev Oda, who made a last-minute agreement to appear at the conference, will join a dialogue Wednesday with Tore Godal, a special adviser to Norway’s prime minister, and leader in the campaign for reproductive health. But the Prime Minister’s place at the table remains empty.

Any questions?

The anna project

This is good.

The anna project is a letter-writing project with a difference, conceived out of outrage by Sylvia Bews-Wright, a Victoria artist and social activist (www.sylviabewswright.com). It gives voice to the many faceless and nameless girls and women in developing countries who die each year due to lack of access to safe abortion.

The anna project was prompted by a recent government decision to exclude access to safe abortion as part of its new maternal and child health initiative announced for the G8 summit meeting in June 2010.

This decision puts Canada at odds with the global community by contradicting our previous commitment – along with 191 other countries – to the UN Millenium Development Goals, which recognize that abortion is one of many components of comprehensive maternal health programmes necessary to reduce the unacceptably high rate of maternal mortality in developing countries.

The anna project tells the stories of three young women. These stories illustrate that women and girls are often unable to control the conditions under which they have sex, or even when and if they do. Access to safe and legal abortion could have saved the lives of two of the three annas. The third anna was lucky enough to be born in Canada. CLICK HERE to understand our choice of stories.

Canadian women have the right to safe abortion. How can we deny this same right to women in developing countries, particularly now, when rape is often a standard tactic of war?

The anna project reaches out to unite people in their displeasure at this abrupt change in Canadian policy. We are asking you to sign a string of anna paper dolls to express your disapproval.

Instructions for paper-doll making -- for those of us who haven't done it for a few decades -- at the site.

Also links to petitions. One from Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada and one from International Planned Parenthood Federation.

Pass it along.

h/t my Facebook friend Antonia Z.

Quebec to HarpoCons: Join the 21st Century Already

Or, as the Winnipeg Free Press styles it, Enough with the ambiguity over abortion.

The Quebec legislature has taken aim at the Harper government over the abortion issue.

Politicians on both sides of the chamber unanimously adopted a pro-choice motion today.

That motion demands that the federal government continue respecting free access to abortion, end its ambiguity on the issue, and stop cutting funding to women's groups that favour abortion.

The unanimous -- that means every single democratically elected representative of the people, right? -- motion will be sent to the federal House and Senate.

DJ! to Quebec: Have we told you lately how much we *heart* you?

The More Canadians Think about It. . . (part 2)

A poll released yesterday and another today.

Canadians want the federal government to spend aid money on safe abortions in developing countries despite the prime minister's refusal to do so, an exclusive QMI Agency poll has found.

This sample is bigger than yesterday's but the results are similar. Slightly more people in this poll support spending foreign aid on access to abortion (61% v. 58%) and slightly more oppose such spending (34% v. 30%).

But will Harper and his TheoCons listen to the people?

Yeah. I know.

Nonetheless, Canada is a pro-choice country.

The More Canadians Think about It. . .

. . . the more we want abortion included in the G8 maternal health initiative.

Stephen Harper's much-vaunted maternal health initiative that was meant to galvanize next month's G8 summit is now causing some queasiness -- among Canadians and internationally.

A new poll suggests that a majority of Canadians opposes the Prime Minister's refusal to fund safer abortions in developing countries, even as international concern grows about the state of his G8 maternal health initiative.

The Canadian Press-Harris Decima poll found that 58 per cent of respondents oppose Harper's exclusion of abortion funding in his drive to improve maternal and child health in poor countries.

And there has been significant movement in the numbers (bold is mine).

That's up from about 46 per cent in March, when a similar question about aid for abortion access was asked. The increase suggests people are taking their time to think through the complex pros and cons before making up their minds, said Megan Tam, vice-president at Harris-Decima.

"It appears that the general sentiment of most Canadians is to have a maternal health policy that includes funding for abortion," she said.

The poll of 1000 people was conducted by telephone between May 6 and May 9. It has a margin of error of 3.1 per cent, 19 times out of 20.

The survey found that opposition to the government's stand was about the same for both men and women, but was stronger in Atlantic Canada and British Columbia than other regions of the country.

Only 30 per cent of respondents said they would support the government's decision, down from about 48 per cent in March.

A gain of 12 per cent in opposition to Stevie the Misogynist and a loss of 18 per cent in approval.

Canada is a PRO-CHOICE country.

Happy F*cking Mother's Day

Keith Martin writing in The Mark:

As we prepare to celebrate Mother’s Day, the future doesn’t look so bright for women in the developing world.


This week, some of the world’s top doctors met in Vancouver to share their extraordinary research on how we can save lives and improve the future of the world’s most vulnerable people. But a dark cloud hung over the meeting. It was impossible to miss the deep concern, fear, and shock these scientists felt about the Canadian government’s position on maternal and child health.

Only a few months ago, these same physicians were overjoyed when they heard that Canada was going to make maternal and child health a priority at this summer's G8 summit in Ontario. They understand very well the interplay between the fate of a mother and that of her children. Their joy, however, turned to shock when this life and death issue turned political and regressive.

These scientists asked: Why is Canada putting itself in a corner, separate from all other G8 nations on the abortion issue? Why does Canada want to deprive woman in developing countries from having the same reproductive rights as Canadian women? Why is Canada cutting funding to groups such as Plan International and Match International, groups that have provided women access to family planning and safe abortions where it is legal, funded violence prevention initiatives, combated the practice of female genital mutilation, and supported gender equality?

They wondered: Doesn’t the Canadian government know that 63,000 women die every year from septic abortions and that these deaths are entirely preventable? Don’t they know that when a mother dies in a low-income country, more than half of her children under the age of five will also perish? Don’t they know that rape is used as a tool of war and that men are frequently forced at gunpoint to rape female members of their family, with some of these women becoming pregnant as a result of this horrific act?

These physicians were aghast that the debate in Canada has turned so ugly. They were deeply worried that this will derail efforts to enable Canada to lead the other G8 nations to develop and implement a plan of action that can move their excellent research from the bench to the bedside. Such a plan would save the lives of the nearly nine million children who die every year from largely preventable causes.

Harper again makes Canada an international pariah.

By the way, the argument that 'abortion is mostly illegal in the developing world anyway so what does it matter' is, surprise, surprise, bullshit. Abortion -- at least to save the life of the woman, and often to preserve her mental and/or physical health -- is nominally legal in most of the counties where aid is desperately needed.

Access, of course, is a totally different matter. And that's where the West must help, providing training and supplies and supporting local efforts to improve access and expand the conditions under which abortion is allowed.

My Dream for a Mothers' Day present.

This is what I fantasize might happen.

Margaret Harper will arrive at 24 Sussex and will slap some sense into Stevie Spiteful to punctuate what the appropriate response to STFU might be. I don't know if that would be salubrious for her well-being but it would sure perk up my spirits. Now there's a maternal health initiative that Stevie should support.

Then she, Laureen and the spawn will go off for lunch somewhere without The Corpulent One.

Would it be evul for me to want a souvenir photo of Margaret slapping Stevie?

Note for the humour impaired, literal-minded Blogging Tories, and other assorted whining rightwingnutz. This is a fantasy. I'm willing to bet that yours are waaaaay more violent and involve torture.

More Funding Cuts to Women's Groups and a Poll

A buncha uppity wimmin NOT shutting the fuck up.

Critics are accusing the Harper government of ideologically driven intimidation for cutting funding to women's groups even as it prepares to champion maternal health at next month's G8 Summit.

The Conservatives have axed funding for up to 14 women's groups in the past two weeks. News of the cuts surfaced a day after Tory Senator Nancy Ruth warned aid groups that they risk a backlash from the government if they don't “shut the fuck up” on the government's refusal to include abortion in the G8 plan.

Please, Canadians, make it stop.

And the CBC's Question of the Day:

Do you think that aid organizations risk funding cuts if they disagree with the government?

At the moment, the non-stupid, non-insane, non-indoctrinated are winning -- 85% yes.

If this is friendly advice. . .

I'd hate to be actually threatened by Conservative Senator Nancy Ruth. (Here is the audio if, like me, you can't fucking believe this.)

Aid experts alarmed by Canada’s new anti-abortion stand in foreign policy have been advised to “shut the f--- up” or risk Prime Minister Stephen Harper taking even more harsh measures – abroad, or maybe even at home if abortion becomes an election issue.

“We’ve got five weeks or whatever left until G-8 starts. Shut the f--- up on this issue,” Conservative Senator Nancy Ruth told a group of international-development advocates who gathered on Parliament Hill on Monday to sound the alarm about Canada’s hard-right stand against abortion in foreign aid.

“If you push it, there will be more backlash,” Ruth said. “This is now a political football. This is not about women’s health in this country.”

And it solves a mystery I've been pondering all weekend -- why are aid groups, including my beloved Plan Canada, not only shutting the fuck up but wagging their collective finger at those of us who will not.

A coalition of development leaders including Plan is calling upon leaders to remember that another 8.8 million children and more than 300,000 mothers will die from preventable illnesses if we allow the political debate on abortion to obscure the critical issue of maternal and infant health.

The CEOs of CARE, Plan, RESULTS, Save the Children, UNICEF
and World Vision are taking a stand on this issue and do not want the potential for hope and opportunity to be swallowed up by a political debate that is stifling the potential for progress.

Here is Plan's official statement:

Time to Measure Success in Lives Saved, Not Political Points Scored: Development Leaders Say

Every year nine million women around the world watch as their children die from painful, preventable illnesses that often cost dimes, not dollars, to treat. Hundreds of thousands more women die in childbirth because they lack access to dependable health care close to home.

For groups like ours, who are working to make a difference in the lives of these millions of women and children, the upcoming G8 in Canada provides an historic opportunity to chart a course out of this desperate terrain.

And yet, instead of pushing forward in support of an initiative that could benefit millions, we're allowing the potential for hope and opportunity to be swallowed up by a political debate about abortion that is stifling the potential for progress.

We know from recent polls that abortion is a sensitive issue for Canadians and debating abortion in the context of this initiative will not resolve the domestic debate. Rather, it will stall or table an initiative that has enormous potential to save the lives of millions of mothers and children from some of the major causes of death.

Considering that Plan is the creator of the fabulous Because I Am a Girl project and has an honourable record for standing up for women's rights, I thought this bend-over-backwardsy chiding was a bit rich.

So I posted a link to Rosie DiManno's harrowing story of rape in Africa on Plan's Facebook page, told them I've been a Foster Parent (as it used to be called) for over 20 years, and that I found their cowardice appalling. I was fueled by the extra news that cutesy gift baskets were going to be given to all MPs -- many of whom would delight in casting Canadian women's rights back to Third World status -- on the occasion of Mother's Day.

I got chided too.

Fern, Plan is a rights-based secular development organization and we support the rights of women to choose all legal and safe options when it comes to family planning and other reproductive health services The reality is that abortion is not widely available or legal in many developing countries. Where it is, Plan offers counselling and referral to women so they can make their own decisions. The basic tenet of reproductive rights is about empowering women and girls, and this is Plan’s core service.

When it comes to the current debate in Canada, our position is that we need to put aside our differences and not get sidetracked by a debate on abortion when the majority of the over 500,000 maternal deaths every year result from lack of access to basic health care, nutrition and clean water. We have an opportunity to lead an international initiative that will save millions of women and their children from preventable deaths. The gift baskets we are giving to MPs next week are a joint initiative with seven other NGOs and they include items like home birthing kits and vitamin A and are meant to educate our policy makers about the reality that millions of women face during pregnancy and child birth in the developing world.

I made a rather testy reply to that. Which was deleted. When I yelped over the deletion, I was told in a private message that Plan wants to maintain a 'positive' Facebook presence.

Shorter Plan Canada to fern hill: STFU.

Well, Plan, I think I'll take a page out of the ReformaTories' play-book and defund you. I'll find an international development org with an actual spine and heart to give my $400+ a year to.

By the way, here's a list of groups defunded by the ReformaTories in the last two weeks.