The Canadian Cancer Society remains committed to funding human embryonic stem cell research despite great advances in adult stem cell therapy and the controversial nature of research that relies on the harvesting of human embryos. CCS spokesperson Rosie Hales confirmed the organization has not changed its policy. The registered charity reported that donations made up 84 percent of its 2016 revenue of [...]
Jean Echlin (third from right) with Campaign Life Coalition summer students at the deVeber Institute seminar. Just less than a month after the legalization of euthanasia in Canada, the deVeber Institute for Bioethics and Social Research hosted “Medical Ethics in an Age of Medically Assisted Dying and Reproductive Decisions,” their second annual summer symposium. On July 15, over 100 guests [...]
The Ottawa Citizen reports, "An NDP government would lift the ban on Canadian foreign aid dollars being used for safe abortions in the world’s poorest countries, Tom Mulcair will announce Tuesday." In 2010, the Conservative government initiated a maternal health program that did not fund abortions in the developing world. The so-called Muskoka Initiative funded nutrition programs, sanitation infrastructure, and safe obstetrics [...]
Every year, 358,000 mothers and 4 million babies die or are stillborn because of poor maternal care. Put another way, 800 women die every day from preventable causes related to pregnancy. Approximately three per cent of women living in sub-Saharan Africa die because of complications relating to pregnancy. Save the Mothers is a Canadian charity that is attempting to remedy these preventable [...]
This past Spring, the Conservative government seemed confused about the message, if not its actual plan, when it came to funding abortion and contraception through its maternal health initiative. When the initiative first appeared in the newspapers, it was reported that Bev Oda, the Minister for International Co-operation and Minister Responsible for the Canadian International Development Agency, was being advised by the [...]
The African Union (AU) finished its annual summit at the end of July with governments agreeing to make maternal and child mortality a continent-wide priority. The summit in Kampala, Uganda, ended with member states extending the controversial, non-binding Maputo Plan of Action (PoA) for an additional five years and expanding a new initiative called the Campaign on Accelerated Reduction on Maternal Mortality [...]
Liberals insist Canada follow American abortion policy One week after a Liberal motion calling upon the federal government to provide for “the full range of reproductive options” in its international maternal and infant health initiative, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton insisted that maternal health includes abortion and contraception during a visit to Canada. During a meeting of G8 foreign [...]
At our website, TheInterim.com, we comment on current news items at our blog Soconvivium (www.viewyourenvoymediasite.ca/soconvivium). During the debate on the Liberal motion to require that abortion and contraception be made part of the government’s maternal health program (see story on page two), we “live-blogged” the proceedings. Here are excerpts of my comments as the debate progressed. 11:09 am: Liberal MP Keith Martin [...]
Campaign Life Coalition’s CLC National News publication was all ready for layout, with a story that praised the Conservatives for holding firm on keeping any facet of “reproductive health” out of the government’s signature policy to improve maternal and infant health in the developing world. On March 17, Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon informed the foreign affairs committee that the [...]
Michael Ignatieff has famously insisted that the government’s plan to address maternal health and infant mortality include abortion. We cover this story in depth on pages 10-11, but there are two important points. First, nobody in his right mind would equate abortion with maternal health; that much should go without saying, although apparently there are some things only a Harvard professor can [...]