Ottawa — Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he was looking for the best scientific advice on saving the lives of women in the developing world, and now he has some.

A leading international health organization and the United Nations Population Fund released a report Thursday with startling statistics about the impact of expanded access to contraception.

The Guttmacher Institute, which focuses its work on reproductive health, says meeting the world's needs for modern birth control would reduce maternal deaths by 70 per cent.

Family planning would eliminate two-thirds of unintended pregnancies and three-quarters of unsafe abortions.

And the report also dangled the prospect of a cost savings: spending on contraception would ultimately reduce other health costs for women and their babies - an estimated $5.1 billion annually if wealthy nations were aggressively contributing to the cause already.

Harper has remained non-committal about whether contraception fits into its new mother-and-child health initiative, and the policy being drafted for a meeting of G8 leaders this summer in Canada.

The Conservatives have shied away from any discussion about abortion services being one of the areas they would support through international aid, but have also not conclusively said they would also fund family planning.

"Our objective of course is to work with our partners around the world to do many things that can be done, at reasonable cost, to save the lives of women and children," Harper told the Commons earlier this week.

"We are looking at a range of options, in that regard. Obviously, we will take the best scientific advice."

On Thursday, representatives from a number of high-profile health groups, including the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada and the Canadian Nurses Association, urged the Tories at least to include family planning as part of their maternal-and child-health initiative.

While the organizations agreed access to safe abortions was part of their own understanding of maternal health, they did not insist the government also commit to support them.

"The United Nations and many other organizations make a distinction. They don't put abortion and family planning together," said Astrid Bucio of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

"I think we can pursue the discussion with the government without necessarily having abortion blocking us in this discussion."

Susan Cohen, of the Washington-based Guttmacher Institute, said other countries would have to be lobbied to pick up Canada's slack on targetting unsafe abortions.

She noted that half of all abortions performed in the world are unsafe, and contraception could reduce them to 5 million from 20 million.

"If the Canadian government is planning to strongly and enthusiastically embrace family planning, which personally I haven't heard that the government has said that..., that's the first step, and then the number of abortions and the ones that are killing and maiming women would be drastically reduced," said Cohen.

"Will go a long way, but it just won't go the whole way."

No Conservative politician was scheduled to officially receive the report or meet with the groups.

The whole issue of what constitutes reproductive health caused a rift in the Liberal caucus earlier in the week. Several MPs either missed or voted against a Liberal motion supporting "the full range of family planning, sexual and reproductive health options, including contraception," causing the party to lose the vote.

Some pro-life MPs felt uncomfortable with the wording because they felt it might encompass abortion services.

Source: The Canadian Press, 25 March 2010
Author: Jennifer Ditchburn