So during this past week, there was a lot of commotion regarding Canada’s commitment to the G8 Maternal Health Initiative. The tension, specifically, revolved around the issue of including legal and safe abortion in Canada’s maternal health initiative in Third World Nations. Whereas Canada’s closest allies recognize that maternal health must include reproductive health, family planning, and access to safe abortion, Canada’s Prime Minister and current Conservative government rejected the inclusion of safe abortion in its initiatives in an attempt to avoid the abortion debate. To gain some context on Canada’s official stance on the issue, we look to the events of January 28, 1988 when the Supreme Court of Canada removed all legal restrictions on abortion. In other words, abortion was allowed throughout all nine months of pregnancy. There still exist provincial guidelines, but they do not have the force of law.
So, I thought I would just share this with you and see what your opinions are on the matter.
For some background information on the issue, please see the following news articles:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/03/30/clinton-contraception.html
http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2010/03/30/13411076.html
