By Patrick B. Craine
OTTAWA, Ontario, June 18, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – As the G8 approaches, the Liberal Party of Canada has called yet again for abortion to be included in the government’s maternal health initiative. Liberals have seized onto a Wednesday report from the parliamentary Standing Committee on the Status of Women, saying it shows that funding abortion would be “evidence-based,” compared to the Conservatives’“ideological” approach.
But pro-life leaders insist that the development and release of the Wednesday report is a classic example of the pro-abortion movement’s refusal to consider anything but their own “evidence.”
“These mothers don’t even have skilled birth attendants, and the pro-aborts are trying to siphon off what money they can to fund their world population control regime,” commented Alissa Golob, head of Campaign Life Coalition Youth (CLCY). “The only way for their tired and flawed system to survive is simply to cover their ears and shut out the truth, revealed in study after study, that abortion hurts women.”
On Thursday, the 6 opposition members of the Status of Women committee, chaired by Liberal MP Dr. Hedy Fry (Vancouver Centre), announced the report; the 5 Conservative members were absent.
The report recommended that Canada fund “all evidence-based interventions across the continuum of care for both mothers and children.” Within this “comprehensive plan” they called on the government to fund “access to safe abortion services where abortion is legal.” They also called for funding the “dissemination of reproductive health and family planning advice, services and supplies.”
The Conservatives explained their absence the same day when they tabled a minority report explaining that they disagreed with the majority’s recommendations. The Conservatives said that key witness testimony had been left out of the majority report. They also objected that the report does not define “family planning” and said that witnesses did not agree on what “family planning” includes.
Rona Ambrose, the Status of Women Minister, told the House of Commons that the Conservatives’ report “clearly states that witnesses urged the members of the committee to focus on helping women and children and to stop playing political games. Those witnesses are right.”
“The report really didn’t reflect the views of the Conservative members,” Chris Hilton, a spokesman for Ambrose, told the Montreal Gazette. He explained that the minority opinion could not be included when the majority report was submitted on Wednesday because Fry did not allow the Conservatives adequate time to write their report in both official languages.
All inquiries on the minority report were directed to Hilton, whom LifeSiteNews was unable to reach by press time.
On Thursday, when the Conservatives tabled the minority report, the Hansard revealed that the opposition took pains to block its submission. When committee member Sylvie Boucher (Beauport—Limoilou, CPC) attempted to table the report, Marcel Proulx (Hull—Aylmer, Lib) argued that “she cannot do indirectly today what she did not want to do directly yesterday; to include her negative report in the report tabled.” The Speaker then disallowed the report due to procedure.
When Ambrose later stood to present the report, Fry interjected with the claim that “there is no such thing as a minority report from that committee on that issue.” But the Speaker allowed it as “a letter addressed to another minister,” on the basis that ministers are able to table any documents they want.
Gwen Landolt, national vice president of REAL Women Canada and a lawyer who has often testified before parliamentary committees, claims that the witness list for the committee was strictly controlled. “They stacked the whole program, and no one who has another opinion is permitted to go near the committee hearings,” she said.
In fact, the list of 18 groups who contributed to the majority report is a veritable who’s who of the Canadian and international pro-abortion lobby; there was no pro-life voice represented.
Among the witnesses were Sharon Camp, president and CEO of the Guttmacher Institute (founded by Planned Parenthood); Pierre La Ramée, a director with the International Planned Parenthood Federation; Jolanta Scott-Parker, executive director of the Canadian Federation for Sexual Health (Planned Parenthood Canada); Katherine McDonald, executive director of Action Canada for Population and Development; Maureen McTeer, Canadian representative for the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood; Jill Wilkinson Sheffield, president of Women Deliver; and Robert Fox, executive director of Oxfam Canada.
Aiming to capitalize on these proceedings, the Liberals issued a press release on Thursday demanding that the maternal health initiative be “based on science, not ideology.”
“During recent hearings on the Status of Women Committee, I was convinced that political will and a commitment to an integrated, comprehensive strategy without ‘cherry picking’ is the only way to end this preventable global tragedy,” said Fry.
Dr. Keith Martin (Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca) called for the government to “abandon its ideologically-driven approach” and adopt a “medically-based plan,” which, he said, “includes the full gamut of family planning options.”
CLCY’s Alissa Golob said, “This is completely typical of what we’ve seen from the pro-aborts since the beginning.”
“Abortion kills babies, and abortion hurts women, especially in the Third World where these mothers lack even the most basic health care. The government is right to keep on ignoring these absurd claims. We applaud Prime Minister Harper for his continued commitment to exclude abortions from his plan.”
See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Researchers Asked to Hide Scientific Debate over Maternal Deaths
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/jun/10060307.html
UN Leadership in Disarray as New Research Shatters Consensus on Maternal Health
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/jun/10061009.html
Experts Disagree with Ignatieff: Abortion Doesn’t Reduce Maternal Mortality
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/feb/10021913.html
From the Experts: The Keys to Ending Maternal Mortality
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/apr/10042909.html