Harper Reopens Abortion Debate

Reopening the divisive abortion debate is a no-win situation.

Not when 73% of Canadians favor leaving abortion as a matter for a woman and her doctor to decide.

That’s the way it’s been in Canada since 1987, a policy that has been endorsed by the Supreme Court.

But last January in Davos, Switzerland Harper made the mistake of telling the G-8 nations that “maternel health” would be the lead topic at the big meeting he’s hosting in the Muskokas June 25 and 26.

Maybe Harper thought “maternal health” just meant providing all sorts of good things for moms such as vaccines, clean drinking water, and good food for happy, healthy children at their feet.

For the rest of the world it also includes the right of a woman to choose whether she wants a child or not, and the right to safe, clean abortions in recognized medical facilities instead of being at the mercy of backyard butchers in unsanitary conditions, often at the expense of her own life.

The World Health Organization reports that last year 63,000 women in Africa died in botched abortions.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and British Foreign Secretary David Milibrand had to come to Ottawa to set Harper straight.

But neither of them vote in Canada. That’s Harper’s dilemma. He was elected with overwhelming backing from the Christian Right in Canada that opposes all forms of abortion in all countries.

With another election coming up anytime, the last thing Harper needs is to lose his Christian Right and Pro-Life supporters.

So last week he announces that if he can’t stop abortion in Canada because it would be too “divisive” he can at least do something about it elsewhere in the world.

Harper announces that from now on Canada will not fund abortions in the Third World. No more money to Canadian organizations to counsel abortions in other countries.

It’s the old George Bush policy come to Canada.

That pleases the Christian right in Canada. At least it’s a first step.

Planned Parenthood of Canada notices that its federal government funding has been frozen since last December, but it dares not complain publicly hoping that Harper may eventually relent.

Yeah, and hell will probably freeze over first.

Harper knows how to show that he means business. Other Canadian foreign aid organizations that have been providing abortions in the Third World and have also been waiting for their funding, have learned to read the handwriting on the wall.

Still, there’s the big G-8 meeting in June coming up. But Harper will deal with that when the time comes. One step at a time.