Ottawa For Immediate Release March 9, 2016
It is a colossal waste of money for Canada to donate $81 million to United Nations initiatives as announced this week by Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of International Development. Its purpose, allegedly, is to increase access to maternal, newborn and reproductive health services in developing countries.
For the past two decades Canada has poured millions of dollars into United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) for supposedly “reproductive health care” (abortion and contraceptives), which has caused little change in the lives of poor women in these countries. This is because this policy is contrary to the culture and religion of women living in third world countries, who regard their children as their wealth, not a deficit.
Moreover, these countries do not have an established medical system in place to deal with the complications and side effects of abortion and contraceptive procedures and drugs. For example, UNFPA and World Health Organization (WHO) distribute, with Canada’s financial assistance, the contraceptive Depo-Provera, which, according to Health Canada, causes bone loss and weakens the immune system and the natural barriers protecting women from the HIV virus. This is of major significance in sub-Sahara Africa, where Depo-Provera is the most widely used form of birth control, and where the prevalence of HIV/AIDS remains the highest in Africa. Moreover, this contraceptive must be injected every three months, and if the injection becomes infected these medical difficulties cannot be addressed due to the fact that the women frequently live far away from health centres.
The Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada stated in June 2, 2010:
“80% of maternal deaths in low resource countries take place during delivery, caused by postpartum hemorrhage, eclampsia, dystocia (prolonged childbirth) and sepsis (infection)…complications during labour and birth are the main reason mothers are dying. It seems clear that this should be the primary focus of any Maternal and Child Health Initiative.”
The opposite approach to women’s and children’s health, enthusiastically endorsed by the Liberal government, is based on the claim that the funding is not ideological, but evidenced-based. This is far from the truth. One of the undisclosed reasons for this funding is that UNFPA is well known as the population control agency at the UN. It is noteworthy that UNFPA supports China’s one-child family policies and coercive abortions.
If the Liberal government genuinely wishes to assist women in the developing world, it should be funding sanitation to prevent infections, clean water, improved nutrition and obstetrical care, minus the anti-natalist ideological bias.
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