The Canadian Press has discovered that the Canadian International Development Agency advised the federal government that its maternal health initiative should include abortion (where legal). The Toronto Star thought this article so important, it splashed the wire story at the top of its paper today. No doubt that to a certain type of mind, this seems scandalous, but it really is not. Policy is a constant battle between the permanent bureaucracy in Ottawa (the public service) and the government of the day. While the public service has many experts and often the government’s priorities give way to the bureaucracy, although often they do not. Furthermore, the story and subsequent outrage it is meant to provoke implies that the government is ideological about abortion and CIDA is not, but the development agency has a long history of abortion promotion. Unfortunately, this story isn’t going to help the government because the public will look at CIDA as an unbiased source of information when in reality they have its own agenda, too.