OTTAWA (CCN)—The Liberal government’s $650-million investment in abortion for the developing world has been met not only with outrage but also with a lament on how the money could be better spent.
Canada could commit to providing women overseas with the same standard of pre-natal, birth, and post-natal care women get here, said Dr. Robert Walley, founder and executive director of MaterCare International. The worldwide organization of Catholic obstetricians and gynecologists helps women safely deliver children in the developing world.
“Money spent on promoting abortion and contraception could be spent on vaccinating millions of women and girls against malaria or other diseases,” said Toronto’s Cardinal Thomas Collins. “$650 million could help build a lot of schools or universities, pathways to knowledge for future female leaders of our world.”
Canada should be using tax dollars with “the intention of achieving the best results for the money we spend,” said Mike Schouten, director of WeNeedaLaw.ca. Instead the government is “forcing a pro-abortion ideology on the underdeveloped areas of the world.”
“Women in third-world countries are in desperate need of medicine, clean water, and maternal care, so that they can care for themselves and their newborn children. These essentials, which we take for granted, are needed so they can give their families the best possible future,” Schouten said.
Walley said world leaders like Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and wealthy philanthropic organization like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation “don’t realize that mothers are women, too.”
Instead of addressing the need for clean water and basic obstetrical care, said Whalley, the message they’re sending out is, “If you don’t want to die in pregnancy, the best thing to do is kill your baby.” They are “discriminating against an enormous number of women who are dying in pregnancy.”
MaterCare International is working in northern Kenya, which has the highest maternal mortality rate in all of Kenya and possibly in all East Africa, he said. In addition, the country and neigbours like Somalia, Ethiopia, and South Sudan are experiencing a massive drought.
“For Canada to spend $650 million on abortion “is an outrage; it’s an abomination and we should be ashamed,” he said.
A spokesman for International Development Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said “Addressing the gaps in sexual and reproductive health and rights is a clearly articulated priority for the Government of Canada.”
Bibeau’s spokesman said the funding “will address gaps in reproductive health rights by protecting and promoting the sexual and reproductive health of women and adolescent girls.”
Bibeau told journalists March 8 she didn’t know how much of the $650 million would be spent on abortion, which is illegal in most countries in Africa.
Listen to an interview with MaterCare International Project Manager Simon Walley on CKNX Radio: https://youtu.be/wazIob5sMxs
