Due to the slow progress in the country’s reconstruction, last month International Development Minister Julian Fantino announced that the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) would stop funding new development projects in Haiti, which is still recovering from 2010’s devastating earthquake. We are not qualified to judge whether or not $50 million in Canadian aid to Haiti was spent wisely, but we do know that whatever the problems there are in Haiti’s reconstruction pale in comparison to the indefensible use of Canadian taxpayer dollars being used to fund Planned Parenthood abroad, through the International Planned Parenthood Federation and its affiliates.
CIDA gave the IPPF a three-year $6 million grant in 2012. While the Harper government maintains that the money is not going to pay for abortions, the recipient groups agitate for legal changes in their countries to broaden abortion access.
Funding abortion groups has nothing to do with helping the poor or international development. Insisting that CIDA’s limited budget be spent wisely should be a prerogative of the Harper government, and Ottawa should make defunding Planned Parenthood a priority.
