This is not the first time that Liberal MP Keith Martin has brought up this compromise for the Harper government’s maternal health care plan: each G8 country should be responsible for one aspect of maternal and infant health so that one nation will take micro-nutrients and another safe deliveries and a third “reproductive health” including abortion and contraception. At first glance this might seem reasonable. But there is a serious criticism and a make-you-think observation that rebuts the soundness of the proposal. First, every dollar spent on condoms and abortions is a dollar not going to nutrition, safe deliveries, clean water and inoculations; it doesn’t even matter if the G8 plan increases the amount of money spent on this initiative: money that pays for abortions is not paying for other stuff. The second point is simply this: what country wants to be the abortion-providing nation? There is the chance to deliver clean water or improve nutrition or inoculations but one of these eight countries will get the privilege of killing unborn children in the developing world. Which world leader wants that photo op?
Keith Martin does not deserve praise for this compromise, but rather derision.
