How Canada’s top development priority can be improved
The Conservative Party of Canada’s maternal health development policy, which was announced at the Muskoka Initiative in 2010 and restated at the Saving Every Woman, Every Child summit this year in Toronto is incomplete. The initiative appears to be based on ideology rather than public health. This is evident, as funding for family planning is excluded from Canada’s efforts to improve maternal health globally.
The Conservative government’s maternal health initiative has pledged $4.6 billion toward strengthening health systems, reducing the burden of disease, and improving nutrition in 10 countries in North, East, and West Africa, as well as in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Haiti. At first glance, Canada appears to be a global leader for the government’s efforts to achieve Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5: reducing child mortality and improving maternal health by reducing maternal mortality. However, how can these goals be achieved by excluding commitments to improving access to family planning, abortion, and reproductive health services? The Conservative government has refused to fund abortion services and flip-flops on funding programs that promote contraception – all of which are essential for improving the health of women around the world.
According to the World Health Organization, maternal health involves the health of women during pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period (about six weeks after childbirth). There is no doubt that maternal health is absolutely important for the health and growth of populations – not to mention for women. For instance, women in developing countries are 300 times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than women in developed countries. However, if initiatives are implemented to improve maternal health, the role unsafe abortion plays in maternal mortality needs to be acknowledged. It is estimated that 20 million unsafe abortions take place every year, 97 per cent of which are in developing countries, and lead to the death of 47, 000 women from complications including hemorrhage or infection. The Conservative government’s rational for not funding abortion is that the topic is divisive and may undermine support for saving the lives of mothers and babies. However, unsafe abortions result in eight per cent of maternal deaths, so funding abortion services is directly related to saving the lives of mothers in developing countries. By not funding reproductive health services, the Canadian government is excluding services that are a necessary component of maternal and reproductive health in the country’s foreign development policy.
The Canadian government has committed billions of dollars towards projects that promote nutrition and train midwives in countries including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Ethiopia. However, what has been happening within Canada? In just under a decade, the Conservative party has canceled a national child care program, defunded Status of Women Canada, cancelled the Court Challenges Program, undermined women’s right to pay equity, and has appointed fewer women to cabinet than previous governments. Overall, there has been an erosion of women’s rights and the efforts to improve equality in Canada. I am not suggesting that the Conservative government defund maternal health programs in developing countries, but the health and well-being of women in Canada also needs to be taken into account. By announcing the country’s dedication to vulnerable mothers in the Global South, the Conservative government is putting Canada forward as an ally to women. However, the government’s domestic policies do not always align with their foreign efforts.
In conclusion, maternal health in the developing world is important. However, to affect global change, policy needs to reflect public health, not conservative ideology. At the very least, the Canadian government needs to include funding for abortion and reproductive health more broadly in its maternal health plan if we really want to decrease maternal mortality in developing countries. Ideally, Canada’s government should not only strive to present the country as a peacekeeping nation dedicated to health, equality, and development, but should embody those qualities and carry them out in both domestic and foreign policy.