Liberals pledge $20M to fill abortion funding gap
The federal government is pledging up to $20 million to fund sexual health and abortion-related projects as part of an international campaign to fill a gap created by President Donald Trump’s decision to ban U.S. funding for abortion-related programs.
The money will go to five organizations, including the International Planned Parenthood Federation, and be spent in the coming 12 months on contraceptives, family planning and comprehensive sexuality education, abortion services where they are legal and access to postabortion care.
International Development Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said funding sexual education and abortion where it is legal is a matter of human rights.
“The idea is really to give women the choice,” Bibeau told reporters from Brussels, where she is attending a 50-nation pledging conference named She Decides. “We’re not forcing anyone into it.
“Having the control over our own body is, to me, the first step for women’s rights and it’s a matter of choice and having access to the information, the services and the supplies.”
Aid agency Save the Children welcomed the pledge, saying that the money could help save the lives of women and girls in the most remote regions of the world.
An anti-abortion group, Campaign Life Coalition, called on the government to redirect the money to provide better nutrition, clean water, medicine and safe deliveries overseas.
A major aid agency said it welcomed any financial help Canada can provide, but warned that if the country is really serious about helping poor women in the developing world, it must increase the overall amount it spends on international aid.
Lauren Ravon, Oxfam’s Canadian director of policy and campaigns, said Canada’s decision to take part in Thursday’s pledging conference is welcome.
Bibeau represented Canada at the meeting, where some 50 countries are trying to raise $600 million to fill the shortfall caused by Trump’s decision.
One of Trump’s first acts as president was to resurrect a policy withholding hundreds of millions of dollars a year from groups that perform abortions or provide advice about the procedure.
The ban has been instituted by successive Republican administrations, only to be rolled back by successive Democratic presidents.
Trump’s order reversed Barack Obama’s 2009 decision to restore funding.