The Conservative government has taken a stand against abortion which appears to upset World Vision:
HALIFAX — The political debate about whether Ottawa should fund safe abortion services overseas is a distraction, and should not be allowed to derail a new Canadian-led campaign to save the lives of new mothers and children the world’s poorest countries, says World Vision Canada.
World Vision is one of a handful of independent relief agencies, working in the developing world, that convinced Prime Minister Stephen Harper in January to make maternal and child health care in Africa and Asia one of his new international priorities.
Harper’s International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda, is in Halifax today hosting a meeting of her counterparts from the G8 nations, to try to hammer out a consensus on funding a new maternal health initiative.
The initiative has become a political hot potato in Canada, however, because of long-standing disagreements over abortion. Oda announced on Monday that any new Canadian efforts to improve maternal health care in poor countries would not include abortion services.
No matter, says World Vision. There are bigger issues at stake.
“The debate is ongoing in Canada. We’re not going to solve it. But we’re not prepared to see this initiative derailed while we’re trying to sort out the ideologies around this,” says Caroline Riseboro, World Vision Canada’s vice-president of public affairs.
Why is World Vision Canada not applauding the government’s opposition to killing the unborn? I really do hope that it’s not because World Vision surreptitiously condones abortion – particularly as I have supported them for many years.
I just heard a spokeswoman from World Vision being interviewed on the CBC. She was asked, directly, what World Vision’s stance on abortion was, and weasled out of answering the question twice, by changing the subject to child health. When the interviewer wouldn’t let go of the question, she said that World Vision doesn’t take a position on abortion, but prefers to concentrate on the things we can all agree on (a rough paraphrase, the interview will probably be up on Ontario Today’s website in a few days).
You might want to consider supporting Compassion Canada instead.
We should all phone our MP’s office to express our support for what the Government is doing (and not doing) on this issue. I just did.
The more of us who take the few minutes to actually pick up the phone and call, the more it will register with the politicians. So basically I am saying this. “Walk the walk, and talk the talk”.
Thanks Kate, yes, I will consider that. Meanwhile, I’ve emailed WV.
AMP – agreed.
I just e-mailed my own MP (Rob Merrifield, who is a Christian), Stephen Harper at his own riding, and the PM’s office, thanking them for their stand. Hopefully everyone who agrees will do the same.
My husband used to work on the hill. The MPs assume that every snail mail handwritten letter represents the views of 100 people, since only one in one hundred would bother to hand write a letter. A hand written letter has much more impact than an email.
I just read part of the article that is linked in this blog. It mentions several times “women and childrens health”. I have to wonder, since when did “childrens health” also include killing babies?
Here is World Vision’s response to my email: