Press Conference: Abortion and the G8 Summit

This week, we held a press conference in Ottawa with other leading Canadian women’s and reproductive rights organizations to address family planning and abortion care in the G8 maternal and child health initiative. Following the press conference, we delivered letters signed by more than 100 international organizations and government officials from the G8 and other countries to Prime Minister Harper.

At the press conference, I issued the following statement :

Since Prime Minister Harper announced that maternal health would be a development priority at the upcoming G8 Summit, Harper and members of his cabinet, have publicly stated that the government’s maternal health strategy will not address unsafe abortions in developing countries or support access to family planning and contraceptives. Despite public outcry concerning the government’s remarks, and recommendations from leading scientific bodies and international aid agencies, Harper refuses to discuss including access to safe abortion care in Canada’s G8 Health Initiative.

As we have seen in Canada and other countries throughout the world, access to safe, legal abortion care preserves women’s health and saves women’s lives.

We have reached out to organizations from the G8 and other countries, and more than 100 groups have joined us in signing a letter to Prime Minister Harper, urging him to include access to safe abortion care in the G8 maternal and child health initiative.