Inkless Wells

Paul Wells on all the latest out of Ottawa—along with the occasional post about jazz. Follow Paul on Twitter: @InklessPW
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Categories: Capital Read, Inkless Wells

Harper's G8 "maternal health" plan: 0 for 3 and counting

by Paul Wells on Wednesday, March 17, 2010 4:07pm - 105 Comments

See, the thing about the Harper government’s plan to present a maternal and child health initiative at the G8 that wouldn’t include any provision for family planning (let us call it by its names: access to abortion and contraception) is that the Harper government would be presenting it at the G8. Which means that, if they are looking for anything but a fight, the Conservatives need to present a plan that would be compatible with the policies of other G8 countries.

So this morning I called around. Three G8 partners have responded so far: the U.S., the United Kingdom and the European Union (France, the UK, Italy and Germany all attend as individual G8 members and the European Commission kind of hangs around too). I’m waiting on another country to get back to me, but I’m struck by the uniform response of the first three: each declined to put up a government spokesperson or diplomat to speak directly to this morning’s Globe story, but each referred me to specific documents outlining their own policy on maternal and child health. And the documents they pointed to were… eloquent. Here’s the roundup:

• United Kingdom

Through a spokesperson, the Brown government in London sent this comment:

“We welcome the focus Canada is placing on the Millennium Development Goals during its Chairmanship of the G8. The [British] PM in Parliament today said: “Five hundred thousand mothers die avoidable deaths each year… This is one of the policy themes of the G8 summit. It is important that we support whatever action can be taken. We as a Government are doing more than most to try to reduce this appalling level of suffering, which can be avoided.” We look forward to working with G8 partners at the Summit to ensure further progress is made towards meeting the MDG on maternal health.”

The spokesperson also directed me to a White Paper from 2009 and specified that the discussion beginning at Section 5.45 in particular would be germane. That section calls, in part, for “safe abortion services (where abortion is legal)” and “a rise by one-third in the number of contraceptive users.”

• United States

If you Google the phrase “Global Gag Rule,” you’ll see that a policy very closely resembling the Harper/Cannon no-condoms-for-Africa doctrine has been a political ping-pong ball in the United States for a generation. Reagan implemented the rule and Bush 41 kept it in place. Clinton revoked it during his first week as President. Bush 43 re-introduced it during his first week as President. Obama re-revoked it during his first week as President.

Obama is still President.

Ambassador David Jacobson was travelling and unavailable for comment today. A U.S. government spokesperson told me, “USAID has been a leader in support for voluntary population planning in developing countries for four decades” and pointed me to these documents:

Barack Obama’s Ghana speech is the least specific, but talks about mothers dying in childbirth. This blog post by an advisor to UN Ambassador Susan Rice is more specific, with its call for “increased resources and access to women’s sexual and reproductive health services.” And this fact sheet from USAID (link loads a .pdf) breaks it all down for anyone who’s still confused:

Global Importance of Family Planning

• Saves lives of mothers and children: Births that are too close together, too early, or too late in a woman’s life decrease both the mother’s and the infant’s chances for survival. By helping women space births at least three years apart, bear children during their healthiest years, and avoid unplanned pregnancies, family planning could prevent 25 percent of maternal and child deaths in the developing world.

• Reduces abortion rates: Unintended pregnancy can result in abortion.An estimated 35 million abortions take place each year in the developing world.Wider availability of family planning programs could prevent many of these abortions.

• Important in fight against HIV/AIDS, particularly mother-to-child HIV transmission: Family planning allows HIV-positive women to space births for optimal health and contributes to programs providing voluntary counseling and testing and pre vention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) services. Family planning services also help reduce stigma, improve referral networks for HIV-related services, and prevent unintended pregnancy, HIV infection, and other sexually transmitted infections.

I could go on. The fact sheet sure does. It dates from December, 2009 — three months ago.

• European Union

Again, nobody at the Delegation of the European Commission in Ottawa would comment on the Globe report, or offer anyone in Brussels to comment for the record. But a spokesman sent this note, which in some ways is the most specific of the three I’ve so far received:

The content of G8 initiatives is still under discussion. Initiatives will have to be agreed by all G8 leaders.

Initiatives will be, as always, in line with internationally agreed commitments, in this case the “Cairo declaration” (International conference on population and development, ICPD 1994), which binds all UN members.

This declaration includes all the necessary elements to promote responsible parenthood, counseling and family planning activities in support of the Millennium Development Goals, MDGs 4 and 5, and in accordance with national legislation.

(a) The links to ICPD Program of Action:

A summary of the ICPD Program of Action: http://www.unfpa.org/icpd/summary.cfm

The full text: http://www.unfpa.org/icpd/icpd-programme.cfm

(b) The link to the Millennium Development Goals: MDG 5 on Maternal Health. The second target under Millennium Development Goals 5 relates to universal access to reproductive health, including family planning. It is often referred to as the ‘unmet need’, pointing at the difference between the number of women who would like to avoid a pregnancy and the number of women having access to modern contraceptives. http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/maternal.shtml

Tags: abortion, contraception, G8, maternal health, Stephen Harper, summit

More by Paul Wells

Wendy Mller

Thank you Paul Wells. I thought your readers might be interested in knowing what our development "partners" actually want: The limitations of the medium mean I must split it into various parts. Here goes:

entered into force 25 November 2005

PROTOCOL TO THE AFRICAN CHARTER ON HUMAN AND
PEOPLES' RIGHTS ON THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN IN AFRICA
Health and Reproductive Rights
1. States Parties shall ensure that the right to health of women,
including sexual and reproductive health is respected and promoted.
This includes: a) the right to control their fertility;
b) the right to decide whether to have children, the number of
children and the spacing of children; c) the right to choose any method of contraception; d) the right to self-protection and to be protected against sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS;
e) the right to be informed on one's health status and on the
health status of one's partner, particularly if affected with sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS, in accordance with internationally recognised standards and best practices;
g) the right to have family planning education.
wendy miller

2. States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to:
a) provide adequate, affordable and accessible health services,
including information, education and communication
programmes to women especially those in rural areas;
b) establish and strengthen existing pre-natal, delivery and
post-natal health and nutritional services for women during
pregnancy and while they are breast-feeding;
c) protect the reproductive rights of women by authorising
medical abortion in cases of sexual assault, rape, incest,
and where the continued pregnancy endangers the mental
and physical health of the mother or the life of the mother
or the foetus.

Can it be any plainer?
shouldIsellyourwheat

Just like all of Obam's talk on climate change, when all the coal states are Democratic states and swing states.

Obama sold out American women in his health care bill.

Obama's one and only accomplishment so far remains bailing out Wall Street banksters and fraudsters.

When Obama gets new money out of Congress for abortions in the Third World, I will publically apologize here.
wendy miller

Gaby, focus is good but a woman is a whole person not the sum of her parts. She is a connected being. And in the developing world getting to a clinic is sometimes and enormous task. There is no transport, no one to look after the farm, the family, cook the meals etc. So when a woman goes to see a doctor during her pregnancy why not offer her the help she needs if she asks for it. I have seen woman walk miles in terrible conditions just to get to a health clinic. To turn her back because the clinic will only look at her pregnancy needs is inumane and cruel. It seems to contradict the storefront service the government is trying to offer to Canadians and it certainly is a double standard not to offer our development partners what we have here at home. Is that fair?.
jogn Gait

Liberals absolutely love this issue. Harper has made a HUGE strategic mistake.
http://intensedebate.com/people/Inkless Inkless

That's why they're introducing their initiative at a meeting with a bunch of countries that won't accept it. Focus.

http://intensedebate.com/people/s_c_f s_c_f

So your point is never to say something unless people agree with you… Strange think to come from a journalist.

Jan

You might want to look up the definition of maternal health.
Gabby in QC

It's not rocket science.
Maternal:
1. of, pertaining to, having the qualities of, or befitting a mother: maternal instincts.
2. related through a mother: his maternal aunt.
3. derived from a mother: maternal genes.
Health
1. the general condition of the body or mind with reference to soundness and vigor: good health; poor health.
2. soundness of body or mind; freedom from disease or ailment: to have one's health; to lose one's health.

I'd love to hear yours.

http://intensedebate.com/people/janicemaerose janicemaerose

Wiki: "Maternal health care is a concept that encompasses family planning, preconception, prenatal, and postnatal care. …"

Gabby in QC

Thank you for the Wiki. It helps with some information, but it does not form my opinions.

You and I differ in our perspectives: you see the entire forest, I see individual trees.
I see a mother and a newborn baby. My government wants to help them survive. I agree. To each his own.

http://intensedebate.com/people/CanNurse CanNurse

Dear Gabrielle, who is apparently a practising Roman Catholic from Quebec, & thus somewhat "Predisposed to certain views" about birth control, etc.,
I was an Obstetrics Nurse for 15 years. I am now a practising Nurse/Midwife. The term, "Maternal" health is used, in real life by real people who work with it every day, as the overall health and well-being of the woman and her reproductive health, from menses onset to menopause, including menstruation, fertility control, pregnancy, post-partum, breast-feeding, etc. Further, fertility control includes discussion, education, and provision of available options for Birth Control.
These are the FACTS, ma'am. Just the facts. Your opinion is yours, but in terms of maternal health, it is uninformed.

Gabby in QC

A lot of assumptions, CanNurse, not to mention condescension … "real life … real people …"

It may have failed your notice, but I did not dispute the more comprehensive definition of "maternal health" provided by the previous commenter.

My approach to a problem is a pragmatic one, not a philosophical one that has that magic word "education" as its main objective– now, now, don't jump to more conclusions, I do value education.

However, I go back to what I believe the government is trying to achieve.
To use your terminology, REAL mothers with REAL babies are dying in REAL time.
Those deaths could be prevented by proper nutrition, inoculations, safe drinking water, setting up clinic and post-partum care by training people such as yourself in REAL locations, etc.

In other words, a REAL and pragmatic approach to a specific problem, rather than a social-engineering philosophical one.
Holly Stick

"…Those deaths could be prevented by proper nutrition, inoculations, safe drinking water, setting up clinic and post-partum care…" Some of them could be. On the other hand, some of those deaths could only be prevented by contraception or by safe abortions. That is reality.
Gabby in QC

"On the other hand, some of those deaths could only be prevented by contraception or by safe abortions."
Sure! prevent the deaths of non-existent human beings! A great make-work project. Brilliant!

Between you and CanNurse, you sound like the type of people who would start lecturing a starving man on the merits of proper nutrition and the evils of trans-fats while the guy's dying to have ANYTHING to eat.

Sorry, I don't have any more arguments against that kind of "hypermetropia."
Holly Stick

You are the one who wants to let real women die with the mistaken idea that it would save some non-viable foetus. How long does a newborn live if its mother is dead? In much of the world, not long. If you kill a woman by refusing her a safe abortion, you make her children orphans and may well condemn them to death as well.
Gabby in QC

Oh Gawd! … Show me where I said women who want an abortion should be denied one.

OTOH, given you've leapt to the wrong conclusion about what I've said time & again, let's forget it.
Holly Stick

As she skateboards away, goalposts under one arm…
Gabby in QC

You've yet to show me where I said what you claim I said regarding abortion … goalposts or not, regardless of what metaphor you care to use.
Gary

Considering the state of our death, ummm, health care system, and being one of it's practitioners, you should refrain from any lectures to the rest of us! You want facts, here goes!
You want birth control?Why stop at condoms? They are one use items only, so lets go "all in" and provide surgeons to perform mass vasectomies! That will fix them………problem solved!
You want to stop AIDS? Those same surgoens, once the above task is complete, can perform mass circumcisions, which are being PROVEN to reduce the risk of said AIDS, up to 85%!
Just the facts ma'am! Chew on those!
http://intensedebate.com/people/s_c_f s_c_f

You have no idea what the word "maternal" means. It's a derivative of "mother". You can't be a mother without a child.

http://intensedebate.com/people/s_c_f s_c_f

Everyone knows what the word maternal means…. It's a derivative of mother. You can't be a mother without a child, or at least a child on the way

shouldIsellyourwheat

Clinton and Gore signed the Kyoto treaty, and spent zero political capital trying to get it ratified in the Senate. They didn't even try.

So if you want a nice G8 statement that includes abortion and no American money to fund it, and thus have the program go nowhere, but just be a nice G8 statement, fine.

The West has been talking a good game on Africa for generations. Clinton (aided by France) facilitated a genocide in Rwanda by blocking effective UN action. Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk.

The Chinese are acting in Africa. There is finally hope for the continent.

Obama is good at getting money out of Congress for bankers, not for women or for real people.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Jenn_ Jenn_

Huh. And I thought we'd advanced enough to actually be real people!

http://intensedebate.com/people/Gaunilon Gaunilon

Actually it kind of could be plainer. For example,

"…authorising medical abortion … where the continued pregnancy endangers … the life of the mother
or the foetus. "

Provide an abortion to protect the life of the foetus?? Er, what?
http://intensedebate.com/people/Gaunilon Gaunilon

Because it's not an artificial distinction. It's a crucial one.

http://intensedebate.com/people/sea_n_mountains sea_n_mountains

please, if you would be so kind, can you explain it to us providing some form of evidence for the claims you make in doing so.

http://intensedebate.com/people/TJCook TJCook

The right doesn't need evidence or data, they have their values* to guide them.

*Values may be discarded at any time due to matters including, but not limited to, electoral gain, political expedience, a need to disappear past shame down the memory hole, the intrusion of reality into their actual lives or to avoid crossing someone they like or fear. Your mileage may vary. Caveat emptor.

http://intensedebate.com/people/sea_n_mountains sea_n_mountains

nearly a day later and no clarification. i guess not totally surprising with the tories backpedaling right up to the PM himself.

Gabby in QC

So then, what's the point of your post?

Did I misread and misunderstand this from your post?:
"The second target under Millennium Development Goals 5 relates to universal access to reproductive health, including family planning."
Let those countries who are willing to undertake the family planning and reproductive health angle take up that torch, and let the countries, like Canada, that wish to provide clean water, safe inoculations etc. provide them.
Where's the beef?

Haven't you ever been invited to a get-together and you're asked to take care of one item, like the whine … I mean wine?
Holly Stick

Only for people who refuse to face reality.
Holly Stick

It doesn't say that. You are focussed on the foetus instead of on the mother who might be endangered by having a dead or dying foetus inside her.
orval

No matter PM Harper does, suggests or proposes, it's going to get slagged by journalists. So I am sure Harper pays zero attention to the media reaction, and so he should.

Thing is it is kind of a tradition that each Chair of the G8 summit comes out with a theme. The G8 Kananaskis Summit came out with the Global Partnership, a 10-year multi-billion dollar scheme to pay Russia to destroy its obsolete chemical weapons, nuclear subs, etc. As far as I know its still going on as it has 2 years to go. Can anyone remember anything else from the G8 that had any staying power?

Maternal and child health as a focus of development aid seems worthy of consideration to me. This seems to be a natural fit with Canada's "rights of women and girls" focus in Afghanistan. If we don't come up with something, the EU types will whinge about the seal hunt blah blah blah. Protestors at G8 don't have Bush to hate anymore so there has to be a focus somewhere.

For me I am looking forward to PM Harper welcoming PM Cameron to his first G8 summit.

D-R

Yeah right. Right after the Liberals first brought this up the first reaction of the Con's media lapdogs was outrage that they had even brought it up.

no more non-partisan

Let's recommend each G8 country take on a single aspect of the Millenium Goal of maternal and infant health. We can nominate the UK to handle all abortion matters since they are currently the abortion centre for Europe while France can take on Family Planning. That leaves the other 5 do look after the other goals.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Jenn_ Jenn_

That's an interesting premise. Would they coordinate and work together on their assigned tasks such that someone in a village in Uganda, say, could go to a full-service (including contraceptives or abortion) health clinic? Or would the person have to go to 7 or 8 different clinics to get the full service required?

no more non-partisan

One clinic working as a team, abortion/family planning program developed and co-ordinated by UK health staff, post natal care program developed and co-ordinated by Canada etc. That's the way health teams work in Canada – why not use them to benefit women in Uganda. The UK because of its abortion laws and health policy is providing abortion services to women from Eastern Europe, Ireland etc. We could call them a "centre of excellece".

http://intensedebate.com/people/Jenn_ Jenn_

I think that's an excellent plan, if it could work.

I'm not sure that it would be enough, though, for certain groups. But hey, I'm all for trying it!

no more non-partisan

sorry that would be the other 6 (G8 not G7 right?) Unless we have one country rotate in when one gets tired.
http://intensedebate.com/people/canaidreform canaidreform

Here is what UK Prime Minister Cameron will say to PM Harper when they meet at the G8 Toronto meeting in June.

"Around the world 200 million women who want to control their reproduction still do not have access to modern contraception. With the exception of a few oil-rich states, no country has risen from poverty
without lowering their birth rates. Giving women choice over whether they have children is incredibly important and helps open the door to economic progress.And as prosperity spreads, the economic need
for parents to have large families diminishes.We will place renewed emphasis on empowering women to take decisions about their reproductive and sexual health. "

Source: The 2009 UK Conservative Party platform on international development.
Greg

Surely you mean PM Bernier welcoming PM Cameron to his first G8 summit.
http://intensedebate.com/people/Inkless Inkless

Ha! I had a hunch. Thanks for confirming it. On the other hand, who governs on their platform?

http://intensedebate.com/people/wmabey wmabey

Well, definitely not our Tories – we'll have to see how long the UK Tories stick with their platform after the election. This plank of the platform should have a better chance than most, since it's not a program that will cost tons of money, and it's targeted far from home; to keep it under the radar, all they need to do is not mention it.

MBToday

This shabby.No other word for it. The Happerites will not make a stand on this important issue but will work in the shadows and peek-a-poo with us pro-life people in trying to convince they are on the right side but in fact doing nothing real. This playing politics while trying to pretend they not playing politics. They have no backbones but will pretend to have one so they can convince us (in a wink wink, nudge nudge kind a way) to vote for them. But really all they interested in is to lower taxes to corporations and giving the said corporations more power over the economy.
wilson

Put a price tag on it,
and the G8 will pick PMSHs vision.

At least then something gets done instead of the usual pricey promises politicians make and never keep,
like Kyoto.

kcm

"Put a price tag on it,
and the G8 will pick PMSHs vision'

Sure, and maybe they'll laugh at his vision too?

Holly Stick

Like Harper's promise for funding on AIDS, which he has broken.

wilson

The funding with Bill Gates?

Andrew in Toronto

Keep up the good work, Paul. I want you to do your best along with the rest of the MSM to have the Liberals make this an election issue and campaign on it.

I think the Grits will lose on it if they honestly run as the party of First World and Third World abortion and "voluntary" population control instead of pretending to be prolife in rural and small-town Canada (as they've done for the past 40 years). You think they will win on it. So push them on it and we'll see who wins.

Holly Stick

While the Harperites are revealed as the Anti-woman Party. This time they won't even manage a minority.

Tim

So will Harper have to back down to the other G8 members and how will it effect his tough guy image? This is hadly an issue of paramount importance for Canada so I can't see how Harper would wan't to burn his political capital with other larger G8 countries. I found it interesting that when Harper was supposed to talk about this maternal health program in Davos he seemed almost embaressed to be discussing it.