In 2006, the Canadian federal government made a pledge to allocate $18 million over four years to International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) - which, on a completely irrelevant tangent, is the Canadian agency I've always wanted to work for. CIDA does a significant amount of international aid work, so it's not entirely illogical for them to be the filter through which this money is distributed. Further, the UNFPA - a branch of the UN - unequivocally states that reproductive health choices are a fundamental human right. This funding allows people access to reproductive health services where there is a severe drought.
This funding comes up for renewal December 31st.
So, my local hometown MP, Brad Trost of Saskatoon-Humboldt has decided it's time the conservative party and its supporters stood up for this blatant misuse of funds (approx. 4.5 million/year), ignoring completely the fact that the CIDA has an annual budget of over 3 billion a year to support a variety of projects in sub-Saharan Africa with nary a muffled cry in protest.
So clearly this is entirely about tax dollars supporting abortion.
Except, Trost is a MP in one of the provinces that still provincially funds abortion in private clinics in addition to federal funding of abortions under medicaid in hospitals and I have yet to hear a peep about that...
So then what is it Brad? Oh! It's because the IPPF charter does not "support physicians' freedom to practice according to their conscience and/or religious beliefs regarding abortion referral."
*coughbullshitcough*
So, you don't like the fact that the IPPF believes medical professionals not willing to provide Birth Control, Contraceptives or Abortion should be required to, at the very LEAST, provide a referral? Jeez, that is a pretty terrible burden for them to have to carry, especially in developing nations where access to ANY doctor is probably the very first barrier to reproductive health services. So really... let's make this even harder, shall we?
Trost has posted a petition on his website trying to garner support for this defunding initiative. There you have it, ladies: another dude telling us of the lady-brain persuasion that having control over the ability to plan our own families, our own futures, our own lives is not as important as funding well-building or vaccinations, despite all studies to the contrary that say women with reproductive health options live longer, more productive lives and have children who are more likely to have better access to education and in turn, contribute to the growth and improvement of their respective nation's economic improvement. Let me catch my breath and say that again. Access to reproductive health is proven to improve the conditions of women and their families living in developing nations. If you wanna talk about returns on dollars invested, reproductive health services is almost as effective as micro credit loans.
Dear Brad: Take a few hours of your life to get informed about the realities of women's rights in international development before you go running your mouth about what's "best for the poor womenz".
Dear readers: I encourage Canadians everywhere to contact Mr. Trost and let him know you won't stand for his interference with international reproductive health services. Contact the CIDA's minister to encourage them to continue their work in providing family planning choices for those living in poverty. Tell PM Harper that you fully support the funding of International aid projects, including funding the IPPF and UNFPA. And please, let your representative know where you stand on reproductive health issues, in the event that Trost's petition actually has an impact on Canadian Politics.
Brad Trost, MP (Saskatoon-Humboldt)
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON
K1A 0A6
Phone: (613) 992-8052
E-mail: trostb@parl.gc.ca
Bev Oda, MP (Durham) and Minister of International Cooperation
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON
K1A 0A6
Phone: (613) 992-2792
Fax: (613) 992-2794
Email: Oda.B@parl.gc.ca
Prime Minister Stephen Harper
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa
K1A 0A2
Fax: 613-941-6900
E-mail: pm@pm.gc.ca
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This is the email I sent to both my MP and Trost. Feel free to use whatever you like:
Dear Mr. Trost,
I read about your most recent effort to circulate a petition that would cut funding to the IPPF, and I find your position disingenuous and abhorrent.
Firstly, I see you would have all funding cut because the IPPF's charter does not "support physicians' freedom to practice according to their conscience and/or religious beliefs regarding abortion referral". This is a rather broad strike against a foundation that provides a lot more than just abortion services to women in developing countries. Would you rather have our tax dollars funding Crisis Pregnancy Centers - renowned for delaying "test" results, giving out bogus medical information and statistics, and using scare tactics in order to coerce women into keeping unwanted pregnancies - to operate in the areas where IPPF would no longer be? Or is it that you believe we should offer no form of reproductive health services to women in developing nations?
While I am pro-choice, there are several other ways you could have approached this issue without reducing much needed services to women. Alternatively, your petition could simply be that aid funding from the Canadian government be earmarked by the foundation to not be used in providing abortion services as a conditional term. I'm not sure how much you know about what services Planned Parenthood actually provides, but I will provide a quick summary for your reference.
IPPF also provides:
- Contraceptives and Contraceptive education
- Sexual health screening: including cervical and breast cancer screening and STI testing
- Date Rape education and prevention
- Body Image seminars
- Child Sexual Abuse prevention education
- Pregnancy support for those wishing to carry to term
- Safer sex education
- Healthy Relationship education
This is just a portion of the other services they provide to communities. Cutting funding would affect these important services as well. Because you have ignored this in your petition, it says to your constituents that you don't think things like contraceptive education is important; that affordable reproductive health services are not a good use of our already-earmarked aid contributions.
But I ask why you would think that? Mr. Trost, if you have even a basic understanding of international development issues, you would know that giving women options about when and how they have families is good for their country's economy. It serves to benefit the women in question, their families and their communities. It has shown to have some of the best "returns" on investment of any development strategy. Read some studies that show how when women can plan their families, their children benefit from increased exposure to education and are more likely to become productive members of society. Or how access lowers maternal death rates, and increases overall general health for women.
Additionally, it is a very paternalistic attitude to have in suggesting other countries should not be able to pass their own moral judgment on abortion laws. While your petition is not a direct attack at such legislation, you and I would both be remiss to not admit that many countries rely on foreign aid to support social programs, and that a cutting of such funding would essentially make the call for them. It is not your place, as a Canadian MP, to decide if abortion services should be available in developing nations. That is what a nation's soveriegnty is about. Trust nations to decide what's best for them. Trust women to decide what's best for them. We do not need your protection from ourselves.
It seems, Mr. Trost, that you are using developing nations as a proxy for your frustrations about Canadian abortion laws, since you know the majority of Canadians wish that the topic be put to rest.
But the most troubling part of this is that, yet again, someone who will never be pregnant feels it is their moral imperative to legislate or control how women can use their own bodies. It is because of these reasons that I will be encouraging everyone I know in your constituency - which is no small number - to not support you during the next election if you continue to persue this course of action.
I would appreciate that you respond to my concerns.
*note: if you ask them to respond, they have to. Otherwise they simply have to acknowledge that they read it. So demand answers!
I still hate that the whole 'unite the right' (read: The Alliance take over the Conservative party) thing worked. The old Conservative Party I could actually agree with on occasion. This one can crawl under a rock and die for all I care.