Are the Harper Conservatives just pretending to be anti-abortion to appease their right-wing base, or are they posturing to the international community, where the consensus favours including abortion and contraception in maternal health? Given the stream of contradictions coming from the Conservatives, it’s impossible to know where they stand.
FLIP:
“We’ve been clear that we will not be funding abortion.”
(Harper spokesman Dimitri Soudas, “Harper government firm on refusal to fund abortions in Third World,” Canadian Press, September 2, 2010)
FLOP:
“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.’”
(International Cooperation Minister Bev Oda, Ottawa Citizen, September 2, 2010)
FLIP:
“Canada has never funded a procedure that included abortion. We are not changing our policy as far as CIDA’s work from historical past practices,” she said. “The clarification yesterday was that within Canada’s G8 initiative, or package of how it best will address and help progress in improving maternal health, we will not be funding abortion or the promotion of abortion.”
(Bev Oda, The Globe and Mail April 28, 2010)
FLOP:
“We are not closing any options. We are not ruling out any options,” Oda said.
(Bev Oda, Canadian Press, March 24, 2010)
FLIP:
“Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said the Canadian maternal health effort would not only avoid funding abortion services but also improved access to contraception. ‘It does not deal in any way, shape or form with family planning. Indeed, the purpose of this is to be able to save lives,’ he said.”
(National Post, March 19, 2010)
FLOP:
“Prime Minister Stephen Harper disavowed his Foreign Minister yesterday, promising that the federal government would include contraception programs in its maternal-health foreign-aid initiative.”
(“Ottawa changes course in wake of birth-control backlash; Contraception will be part of G8 initiative to protect mothers, PM says,” The Globe And Mail, March 19, 2010)
