‘No division’ between member nations despite conflicting approach to funding of maternal health

Joanna Smith in Halifax Susan Delacourt in Ottawa
April 27, 2010

The Conservative government has stated Canada will not spend any humanitarian dollars on abortion as part of its signature G8 initiative to improve maternal and child health in developing countries.

“Canada’s contribution will not include funding of abortions,” Canadian International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda told reporters Monday after arriving in Halifax for a meeting of G8 development ministers.

The declaration – coupled with a similar statement from her parliamentary secretary, Conservative MP Jim Abbott, in the Commons about an hour earlier – came as a surprise after months of vague back and forth without a categorical stand on whether its new foreign-aid focus on maternal health included access to safe abortions.

“Canada’s contribution to maternal and child health may involve various interventions, including family planning, which includes the use of contraceptive methods,” Oda said.

The announcement puts Canada at odds with the United States and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton – who spoke out for financing abortion when she was in Canada last month – as well as several of Canada’s G8 partners.

(more…)

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April 26, 2010
Joanna Smith

HALIFAX—The upcoming meeting of G8 development ministers is unlikely to top the scolding U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave the Conservative government for trying to keep abortions out of its maternal health project as far as headlines go.

That is probably just as well, because the main players will have enough to do trying to convince the rest of the world — including the protesters expected to sound their disappointment on the streets of Halifax — they are still serious about keeping promises made years ago.

“We’re hoping the development ministers will acknowledge that their governments have fallen short and if not announce things at least push their leaders to announce new assistance when they meet (at the G8 leaders’ summit) in June,” said Mark Fried, advocacy coordinator for Oxfam Canada.

The three-day ministerial meeting that begins Monday evening is supposed to lay the groundwork for proposals that will be the focus of the main G8 event in Huntsville, Ont. and Bev Oda, the Canadian minister for international cooperation, appears confident she will be able to find enough agreement among her counterparts to get that job done.

(more…)

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Oda to push for G8 strategy during Halifax meetings
Heather Scoffield, The Canadian Press

OTTAWA – Defining a maternal and child health strategy for developing countries is the least of the G8′s challenges on the aid front right now.

At a key meeting of G8 development ministers in Halifax this week, Canada’s Bev Oda is confident she’ll find enough common ground to announce progress on Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s signature G8 agenda item.

“Development ministers are going to agree on a way forward,” said Oda’s spokeswoman Jessica Fletcher.

Oda is also expected to add some clarity to Canada’s own approach to improving the lives of mothers and their young children in poor countries, amidst criticism Ottawa is trying to sidestep inclusion of abortion and family planning. More problematic, however, is Canada’s goal to make sure countries are living up to their substantial – and expensive – promises of the past.

The meeting, to prepare for the June summit in Huntsville, Ont., comes at a time when government funding is in short supply around the world, and the very case for any international aid at all is being called into question by a growing pile of publications and high-profile critics.

(more…)

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Mother of all issues
MPs can distinguish themselves by championing worthy causes

WALTER ROBINSON

Given present happenings on Parliament Hill, these are not good times to be a federal politician, or as Michael Ignatieff poorly mused, a member of the so-called political class.

Sadly, Canadians have become blase if not immune to political scandals — imagined, overblown or real — and just accept them as the same old, same old.

This is a dangerous situation with Canadians across all age groups, professions and income groups tuning out, according to pollsters, of the daily happenings in Parliament, from the absurd theatre of question period to the more substantive work of committees.

At the risk of belittling the role of our 308 MPs, much of it is routine, from EI concerns to passports to immigration issues. An MP is very much an ombudsperson for their constituents, helping them navigate the complex federal bureaucracy. Much of this can be competently accomplished with the assistance of a great staff team on the Hill and in their riding offices. (more…)

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The very reasonable Mr. Martin
Reproductive rights proposal is common sense

John Ivison, National Post
April 7, 2010

Much as Hamlet was suspected of madness and sent to England to recover his wits, “or if not ’tis no great matter there,” so those who have taken leave of their senses in our time seem to end up in the House of Commons. How else can you explain the Liberal motion calling for the government to include abortion in its maternal health plan, when a significant number of its own MPs oppose the procedure?

In such confused times, Liberal MP Keith Martin has a history of acting as the voice of reason –
bailing out his own party and providing political cover for an obdurate Prime Minister to reach a
compromise.

Read the full article here…National Post – The very reasonable Mr. Martin – Ivison – 7Apr10

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Monday, April 5, 2010 8:19 AM

A maternal-health answer and more Helena Guergis questions

Jane Taber

1. Avoiding the abortion debate. Keith Martin, a Liberal MP and medical doctor, may just have found an “out” for Stephen Harper and his maternal health initiative for this summer’s G8 – let another country focus on providing safe abortions.

First some background: The Prime Minister’s signature initiative for the summit appears to be in jeopardy after Hillary Clinton’s assertion last week that any such project must include access to abortion. British Foreign Secretary David Miliband later added his voice to that of the U.S. Secretary of State.

The Harper government has vowed that it will not reopen the abortion debate through this initiative. But with the criticisms of the British and the Americans, the initiative is in grave jeopardy if not dead already.
There may be a way to salvage it, however.

In a recent article in The Mark, Dr. Martin finds a way for Mr. Harper to “square” his opposition to abortion “while implementing an effective plan to reduce maternal and childhood mortality.”

Dr. Martin, who has worked in Africa and on this issue for previous G8 summits, says the Prime Minister should propose that each member country concentrate on one aspect of the initiative. For example, he writes, that Canada “could be the lead nation on training healthcare workers and micronutrients, another country could focus on providing medications, another on access to family planning and safe abortions etc.”

“In this way a, a comprehensive plan that focuses on enabling the world’s poorest to access basic primary care services can be implemented, with the G8 countries dividing responsibilities and target resources.”

Interesting advice the Tories might want to consider given that Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said on CTV’s Question Period yesterday that the government – regardless of the U.S. and British positions – is pushing ahead with the initiative. What he didn’t say was how the government would find a solution amid the entrenched positions from key allies.

A meeting of G8 development ministers later this month in Halifax, led by Canada’s Bev Oda, will consider the initiative in advance of this summer’s summit.

Take the Martin article with you – or take Dr. Martin.

view the pdf version here:Globe and Mail – A Maternal Health Answer – Taber – 5Apr10

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If he doesn’t tackle these issues at the 2010 G8, it will be Canada’s most regressive health policy decision ever.
by Keith Martin
Member of Parliament, Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca, B.C., Liberal Party of Canada; MD.

A pregnant woman dies every minute of every day from mostly preventable or treatable causes. The recent loss of a motion in Parliament to ensure that family planning will be on the agenda at this year’s G8 and G20 summits in Canada is disappointing, but we must not let it distract us from the great opportunity that lies before us to address this international catastrophe.

The reason for introducing the motion was to clarify the Government of Canada’s position on this issue. When Prime Minister Stephen Harper said earlier this year that reducing maternal and childhood deaths would be a focus of this year’s summits, we applauded. But this support turned to concern when Mr. Harper’s ministers started saying that family planning and access to safe abortions would be excluded from the agenda. They also said that they were “not opening the abortion debate.” This set off a firestorm.

So how can we save the lives of mothers and their children? (more…)

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Improving Maternal and Child Health in Canada: A look at the FMEC report

By Irving Gold, Vice President, Government Relations and External Affairs

I recently attended a meeting on Parliament Hill organized by Keith Martin (Liberal MP for Esquimalt–Juan de Fuca), Maureen McTeer, and sponsors from all four political parties represented in the House of Commons. The meeting was on the topic of maternal and child health, and was suitably held on the 99-year anniversary
of International Women’s Day.

Read More…

Gravitas_March_Mars_2010

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Sarah Palin’s gross misrepresentations of the Canadian and American medical systems confuses the public by perpetuating a number of myths, and hijacks what we both need: a constructive, fact-based debate on how our citizens can access timely, affordable, high-quality health care.

The downstream effect of people like Palin, on both sides of the border, who make false comparisons, propagate falsehoods, and stoke fears is that many Canadians and Americans are under the delusion that their country has “the best health care system in the world.” The reality is far different. (more…)

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