CBC News: Canada’s foreign aid commitment to contraception low despite great need
“…When Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced Canada’s commitment to maternal, newborn, and child health five years ago, one of the first questions to him and then-International Development Minister Bev Oda was whether that would include family planning and abortion. It took Oda months to confirm that Canada would indeed allow its $2.85 billion in funding to be used for contraceptives. Abortion, however, was out of the question. But in practice, only 1.4 percent of Canada’s funding under the Muskoka Initiative — the name attached to the five-year plan to provide more money to save the lives of women and children — has gone to birth control. That works out to about four percent of overall international aid provided by Canada…” (Payton, 6/25).