Globe and Mail: "Birth control won't be in G8 plan to protect mothers, Tories say"

Sineed wrote:

remind wrote:

This is the shape they are going to move towards in our own health care system, I believe.

Yes - if they get a majority, this is what we'll see more of.

Why would they need a majority?

I believe they may have made a tactical error.  This bit of red meat for their social conservative core isn't getting them one new vote, but I don't think it will sit well with the general undecided electorate.  This could come back and bite them big time if the NDP can get some traction on it.  There's a helluvalotta "working canadian families" who use birth control.

They do not need a majority to continue and make this domestic policy too.

This is a good way to take Harper on, on this issue.

Harper's G8 "maternal health" plan: 0 for 3 and counting

http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/03/17/harpers-g8-maternal-health-plan/

Forgive my ignorance, but why is the G8 funding maternal health care and exporting policy in and to other countries in the first place? I don't like the assumptions inherent in this news item, that 1) we have the authority to develop "initiatives" for other countries, and 2),  that we can decide in what ways they need our "help". In other words, I don't see the value in arguing what we're helping with, when in fact it's the help itself that is questionable.

I think the G8 would do well to look at the third world conditions in our own countries before playing benevolent benefactor in others.

Yeah, I don't know too many couples who don't use some form of birth control or other, since most couples I know who have been together for over a decade don't have 8 kids.

Maternal health: What does "no debate on abortion" mean?

I take the prime minister to be saying he will contemplate any accord that includes access to contraception or abortion. But I don't think it's possible to be certain, so I think he will have to be asked again.

 http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/03/18/what-does-no-debate-on-abortion-mean/...

I appreciated this commentary from Saturday Morning Coffee:

"it would appear that the Conservatives are finding it a little difficult to step outside of the box, try on a new policy and run with it. Instead, the ‘maternal and children’s health issues’ that Canada was hoping to address on a wider scale didn’t actually address one of the major issues of the 21st century – contraception – at least not until the PM was hounded by aid agencies, NGOs, journalists and even a UN official citing the importance of contraception for maternal health. The Foreign Minister and the Minister of Int’l Cooperation both were ignorant of the PM’s plans and instead issued statements stating the contrary. So now, the PM is supporting contraception, leaving his Minister’s in the dark, but also condemned strongly abortion."

Full blog posting here.

What we are seeing reproduced in Canada is standard political fare south of the 49th...It's called the social conservatism of fundamentalists, played to by Steve.  In the third world, employers of course do not want to raise the cost of labour. For the international corporation, in whom investment managers seek the greatest returns for their First World investors, the limits are described in No Logo. 

Seems to me it makes clearer an already distinct line of beliefs/values between the Cons and all the others. And the longer this government governs from a minority position, the more difficulty they have in hiding their malevolent, bible-based structure. They have grown in strength over the past few decades...they would not have had the nerve to propose it 40 years ago. But back then, we had not yet entered the chic "post-feminist" age.

No abortion in Canada's G8 maternal health plan

Quote:

The federal government has disclosed for the first time that Canada will not fund abortions in its G8 child and maternal health-care initiative for developing countries.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced late last year that Canada, as the host of the upcoming G8 meeting in June, would champion maternal and child health in developing countries.

But until Monday, no one in the government had disclosed whether abortion would be included in the corresponding programs Canada supports.

International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda said the government would consider funding family planning measures such as contraception, but not abortion under any circumstances.

"We're saying that we're using the definition in our discussions of family planning, which does not include abortion," Oda told reporters on Monday in Halifax, where she was meeting with her G8 counterparts.

"We're not debating abortion; we're clarifying family planning."

Bev Oda, in her press conference yesterday, I believe, deliberately and outright lied to Canadians. Though it is not quite clear what exactly the lie(s) is, or are.

Her lie(s) is that the Canadian government's new stance, differentiated from last's years stance after the G8, was now exactly the same as the USA's stance, which is she said; "no funding of abortions through foreign aid."

Oda even brought a US representative up to the mic to have him reaffirm that there was no difference in  our 2 country's policies. And interestingly,  and crucially as it indicates Oda/Harper are fabricating, he did say that our 2 country's foreign policies on this were the same, but then went on to detail the opposite of what Oda had just stated.

As, in actual fact, one of the first things done by the Obama admin was to take that odious foreign policy of Bush's out and reimpliment abortion funding as part of their foreign aid. As Hilary stated here not so long ago, it is crucial to family health, as a woman dies every 8 mins from a botched and illegal abortion.

So this definitely indicates lies, by Harper and Oda.

Are they playing to their base and lying about the policy change, and really keeping it the same,  and hoping that the "religious" base will never find out otherwise, in order to sooth, read lull them?

Are they actually changing the laws, and lying to unknowing, or oblivious to political shenanigans, Canadians, who do slightly pay attention, with their saying it is now the same as the USA's, when in fact it isn't? 

Either case of lies would be for the bandwagon effect, to keep those follower minions on their side.  And this of course would effect pro-choice, as well as anti-choice, who pay semi-attention, both could believe their beliefs are being met.

Or is it all just a ploy to divert attention away from the other scandals the Conservatives are involved in currently.

Hopefully, Oda and the Conservatives, get called publically on the lies, and the media pin her down on the diverging of reality and truth, from the smoke screen being emitted.

The really nasty and evil thing, of course, is that they are playing lying politics with women's rights and lives, and are thinking there is nothing wrong with it.

I believe someone made the point earlier - that this is Harper and his party playing to their base, in other words, following an extreme right wing agenda. The bastards need to be defeated in an election asap. I doubt Iggy's Liberals will be as bad as the HarperCons if the Liberals somehow manage to eke out an electoral victory (although that looks unlikely right now).