(The following article is from the May 16-31,  2010 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)

People's Voice Editorial

     The Harper government's latest attack on women's reproductive freedoms shows that the so-called "pro-life" forces are willing accomplices in the deaths of women and children around the world. Most Canadians support women's right to choose, yet the Tories have decided to exclude from Canada's G8 maternal/child health package any funding for reproductive health care that includes safe abortion services. This policy will have a deadly impact.

     Until now, Canada has acted through the United Nations to help provide a full range of reproductive health services, including safe abortion where legal, and has consistently funded such services. In developing countries, up to 20 million women decide to resort to illegal abortions every year, resulting in an estimated 70,000 deaths. Millions of these women never receive medical treatment for the resulting complications. Over 200,000 children lose their mothers every year from unsafe abortion-related deaths, and the lifespan of the surviving children in such families is shortened. In countries where mass rape is used as a sexual weapon, lack of access to safe abortion services compounds the trauma imposed on women and girls, further reducing their chances to regain a normal life.

     The new policy means that groups which forfeit Canadian funding may lose much of their ability to provide other basic healthcare. Far from improving the health of women and children, the Harper government's policy shift will cost countless lives.

     This must not be allowed to happen. The Tories must be pushed to fund the full range of reproductive healthcare for women, and quality post-abortion care for women injured from illegal, unsafe abortion. This issue proves again the urgent need to mobilize Canadians to drive the Tories out of office, and to decisively defeat the right wing forces in the next election.