Foreign Affairs in Collusion With Planned Parenthood

By Cecilia Forsyth, Past National President

The very first venture for REAL Women of Canada into the realm of the United Nations was the 1994 UN International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo, Egypt. It was, therefore, fitting that REAL Women was invited by the Canadian government to participate in a recent two-day consultation on the ICPD Programme of Action. The purpose was to identify priority issues on the implementation of the Cairo document for government consideration for the June 1999 Special Session of the UN on the 5-year follow-up review of ICPD.

Several curious factors became quickly apparent at the Feb 1-2nd consultation session. The Department of Foreign Affairs had financed five regional forums on this topic in November/December 1998 which were organized by a new Canadian non-government organization (NGO) called Action Canada for Population and Development (ACPD). This group shares the same address, philosophy and personnel as the Planned Parenthood Federation of Canada. Katherine McDonald, Executive Director of ACPD is also legal counsel and former President of Planned Parenthood Canada . The ACPD Mission Statement states that it supports the rights defined in the International Planned Parenthood (IPPF) Charter on Sexual and Reproductive Rights and Vision 2000-Strategic Plan. In other words, both groups are totally committed to the worldwide legalization of abortion. The close working relationship between the Canadian government and these groups strongly suggests that the Liberal government shares the same attitude on abortion.

It was also obvious that the six of us (out of 100 participants) who embraced pro-family pro-life ideals were to be tolerated but not debated. For example, whenever any one of us spoke at the Plenary or workshop sessions, the respective chairperson would simply reply 'Thank You'. Our viewpoints were obviously not to be considered for discussion or dialogue by the various government officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT), Health Canada (HC) or the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) or by the pro-abortion NGO's.

We were not silenced by these tactics. The pro-family advocates spoke out strongly against the recommendation to increase government spending to promote abortion, contraception and sterilization as reproductive health care, services and education for women and girl children, particularly in Third World countries. Instead of focusing solely on population control measures, we pleaded for basic primary health care, medicine, clean water, adequate nutrition and authentic assistance for the developing countries. We defended the rights and responsibilities of parents. We, also, reminded the Forum of the clause in the ICPD document, which states "that in no case should abortion be promoted as a method of family planning."

Unfortunately, however, the major focus of the 1994 ICPD Programme is to empower women and to provide sexual and reproductive rights and health for women and girls. It proposes safe 'legal' abortion to reduce maternal mortality. In short, the ICPD plan places individual fertility and sexual behaviour ahead of primary health care and development.

Reducing the fertility of women in poor countries is presented as the means to reduce poverty, mortality and population. Pro-family advocates pointed out that some countries, such as Bangladesh, China and Peru, view population control as more important than primary health care, and we questioned CIDA funding of coercive population control programs in these countries.

The concept of over-population was another area not adequately addressed. This ideology ignores the hard facts which show a decrease in world demographic growth. Given this change in population data, it would be reasonable to revise the focus of the 20-year ICPD Programme of Action to give priority to developmental policies rather than continuing to concentrate on depopulation policies.

Having attended the 94 Cairo Conference, REAL Women representative, Cecilia Forsyth, was able to inform Forum participants of three basic facts conspicuously absent from the government's information package:

• that the Chapeau in the Preamble of the ICPD document provides that implementation of the principles of the Program are to be carried out at the national level only in accordance with each state's laws, religious and ethical values.
• that the ICPD was not a consensus document as 25 countries placed reservations on parts of the Program of Action and another 4 nations boycotted the Conference
• that the Cairo Program of Action is not a legally binding document as it is merely a conference document, not an international treaty.

Planned Parenthood's lobby group, ACPD, is promoting a postcard campaign to ask the government to commitment $200 million by the year 2000 for worldwide programs and services for women and girls to promote abortion, contraception, sterilization and comprehensive sex education in the Third World. International Planned Parenthood is a leading beneficiary of this type of government spending.

It is crucial for pro-family, pro-life Canadians to write government officials to express our views. Please immediately write to:

The Hon. Jean Chrétien

Office of the Prime Minister

80 Wellington Street, 2nd Floor

Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A2

Fax: (613) 941-6900

The Hon. Lloyd Axworthy

Minister of Foreign Affairs

Room 418-N, Centre Block

House of Commons

Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6

Fax: (613) 996-3443

The Honorable Paul Martin

Minister of Finance

House of Commons

Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6

Fax: (613) 995-5176

Your MP

House of Commons

Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6

Please make the following points in your letter:

• Object to the use of taxpayer dollars to promote abortion and other means of population control in Canada and in the poorer developing countries
• Ask the government to fund authentic development programs for clean water, basic health care, medicines, food and other technological/industrial assistance
• Ask the government to immediately implement fair and equal representation of all viewpoints, including the pro-life perspective on Canada's delegations to the UN meetings

BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS