Wednesday September 8, 2010
Canadian Gvmt ‘Considering’ Re-Funding Planned Parenthood
By Patrick B. Craine
OTTAWA, Ontario, September 8, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A key cabinet minister in the Canadian government says they are considering re-funding the world’s largest abortion provider, the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), after the organization’s three year grant expired in December.
Bev Oda, the Minister for International Cooperation and head of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), told the Ottawa Citizen that the government supports IPPF and wants to work with them. “We have a proposal before us right now and are considering it,” she said.
CIDA has a longstanding funding relationship with IPPF, but a three-year, $18 million grant ended in December. IPPF began complaining in February that they were relying on “reserve” funds because the government had yet to respond to their application for renewal.
Many believed that the abortion giant had been defunded in response to a petition last year by Conservative MP Brad Trost. Trost’s petition pointed out, for example, that IPPF seeks to deny doctors the right to follow their conscience and religious beliefs regarding abortion referrals.
Oda told the Citizen that she has spoken with IPPF’s head Gill Greer, and said Greer “is very knowledgeable about Canada’s G8 initiative and is committed to working with Canada on that.”
IPPF also told Maclean’s that they are “engaged in active discussions about the possibilities for … future funding with CIDA.”
During the controversy last winter and spring over abortion funding in the G8 maternal health initiative, the Harper government promised that they would not be funding abortion overseas.
Oda appeared to contradict that promise last week, prompting Campaign Life Coalition to demand her resignation. In an interview with the Ottawa Citizen Oda appeared to say that the government was open to funding abortion in the Third World. Oda has since said that the Citizen article was “inaccurate.”
In contrast to Oda’s remarks, last Thursday the prime minister’s spokesman Dimitri Soudas restated the government’s position against abortion funding, telling the Toronto Sun, “Parliament has voted on this not to reopen this debate and voted not [to] fund abortion overseas.”
In a letter to the editor of the Ottawa Citizen last Saturday, Oda herself insisted that the government would not fund abortion under the G8 initiative. Regarding the suggestion that CIDA was preparing to re-fund IPPF, Oda wrote: “CIDA has neither called for, nor received applications from any organizations for funding under Canada’s MNCH G-8 initiative, therefore no applications have been considered.”
As the Citizen notes, it appears Oda is making a distinction between applications for general CIDA funds and applications under the G8 initiative. If this is the case, then it appears that CIDA is considering funding IPPF outside the G8 initiative.
In the last year IPPF has upped its efforts to promote its radical sexual agenda among youth. In a January report, the group called for governments to ensure all youth aged 10 and over, whether in school or not, be given “comprehensive sexuality education.”
IPPF’s version of sex-ed for youth was illuminated the same month by Planned Parenthood’s vice president of international programs, Veena Siddharth, who related how the group is engaged in training Ecuadorean children as young as 11 to inject their peers with the abortifacient contraceptive drug Depo-Provera.
A representative from Oda’s office insisted that it is “inaccurate” to suggest the government is “on the verge of funding or re-funding this organization.”
“The Minister has explained that IPPF, like any other organization applying for funding under the G-8 initiative, would be considered, but must comply with Government of Canada Policy,” explained Jessica Fletcher, spokesperson for Oda. “This does not suggest the organization will receive funding.”
See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
IPPF Complains Canadian Conservative Government Delaying Millions in Funding
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/feb/10021111.html
Conservative Minister Bev Oda Reopens G8 Abortion Debate
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/sep/10090209.html
Canadian Gvmt Funding Group that Performs Illegal Abortions
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/sep/10090312.html