OTTAWA, Mar 25 (LSN) – The Globe and Mail reported this morning that Prime Minister Jean
Chretien is set to announce today in Winnipeg that Canada is going to offer debt relief to
Third World Countries but the relief will be tied to “human rights.” Canadian pro-life
leaders warn that tying Third World debt relief to “human rights” could force abortion,
contraception and sterilization on these countries since the provision of these “services”
are considered by the Canadian liberal elite to be “basic human rights.”
The National Action Committee on the Status of Women (NAC), the nation’s leading feminist
group which is given millions of dollars every year by the federal government, is at the
forefront of efforts at the international level to have abortion recognized as a “human
right” around the world. (See NAC story link below)
The central goal of the international anti-life movement is to gain recognition of abortion
as a ‘‘human right.’’ Recent UN conferences have established that “women’s rights are human
rights” and that women have the “right to reproductive health” which includes abortion on
demand. Notably, Canadian delegates to the UN conferences have been the foremost pushers
of this perversion of the term “human rights.” Mary Robinson, the UN’s new High
Commissioner for Human Rights said last November “My responsibility as UN High Commissioner
is…specifically to include women’s rights as human rights, as we were reminded by the
Beijing conference.” (See Robinson story link below)
Mandating that poor Third World countries accept population control measures to receive
debt forgiveness, funding, or even food aid is nothing new. US foreign policy regarding
population control in the Third World (contained in NSSM 200) states clearly that
“allocation of. (aid). should take account of what steps a country is taking in population
control. However, it is important in style as well as substance to avoid the appearance of
coercion.”
The World Bank has repeatedly engaged in this tactic of refusing aid unless the country in
need of financial assistance adopts population control measures including abortion. A 1992
evaluation paper by the World Bank discussing “Population and the World Bank” in Senegal
described a rural health project in the country which focused on the provision of buildings
and equipment for expansion of basic health services. The study noted that the agreement to
provide the buildings and equipment was contingent on “family planning.”
The study said that the “failure to implement this (family planning) element” resulted in a
stagnation of the project. The report went on to say that in 1985-1986, the Bank
concentrated on helping the government develop a comprehensive population policy. As a
direct result of the acceptance of the population policy (a “condition of release”) the Bank
released the money (called a structural-adjustment loan) needed to complete the project.“This recommendation was accepted and eventually implemented by making the development of
such a policy statement a condition for release of the second tranche of the third
structural-adjustment loan.” (See NSSM story link below)
Jim Hughes, National President of Campaign Life Coalition, told LifeSite, that the pro-life
community fears that the Canadian government will coercively insist on the provision of the
“human right” of abortion in countries which hope to be forgiven debts by Canada. “When we
first learned of the debt relief proposal we were fearful that it may force Third World
countries to mandate abortion, artificial contraception and sterilization,” said Hughes.
Noting that government appointed delegates to the UN have been pushing for recognition of
abortion as a “human right,” Chretien’s proposal to make debt relief for Third World
countries contingent on “human rights” could have ominous implications.
Related LifeSite stories:
NAC (fourth story) https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/1997/sept/970922.html
Robinson (first story) https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/1997/nov/971112.html
NSSM https://www.lifesitenews.com/interim/1999/jan/20financial.html
For the news from the Globe and Mail go to:
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/gam/National/19990325/UCHREN.html