Skip to content
LEAF logo
LEAF logo
DONATE
DONATE
MENU
LEAF logo

Contact

DONATE
DONATE
Informations en français
  • English
  • Français
  • About
    • Our Story
    • Mission & Vision
    • Staff
    • Board
    • Law Program Committee
    • FAQs
  • Cases and Law Reform
    • Our Work
    • Issue Areas
      • Reproductive Justice
      • Indigenous Rights and Law
      • Identity-Based Oppression
      • Hate Speech and Online Hate
      • Sexual Assault and Consent Law
      • Gender-Based Violence
      • Access to Justice
      • Workplace Rights
      • Socio-Economic Rights
      • Family Law
    • Search Cases & Submissions
    • Current Work
      • Accountability Project
      • Avenues to Justice
      • Strengthening Community Capacity
      • Technology-Facilitated Violence
      • Valuing the Care Economy
    • Past Projects
    • Legal Resources
  • Education
    • Overview
    • Workshops, trainings & webinars
    • Factsheets & infographics
  • News & Events
    • Search News & Events
    • Events
  • Publications
    • Search Publications
    • Working Papers
    • Reports
    • Annual Reports
  • Regional Branches
    • Overview
    • LEAF Calgary
    • LEAF Edmonton
    • LEAF Halifax
    • LEAF Hamilton
    • LEAF Kitchener-Waterloo
    • LEAF London
    • LEAF Newfoundland & Labrador
    • LEAF Ottawa
    • LEAF Saskatchewan
    • LEAF Sudbury
    • LEAF Toronto
    • LEAF Windsor
    • LEAF Winnipeg
  • Get Involved
    • Ways to Get Involved
    • Donate to LEAF
    • Join a Branch
    • Volunteer
    • Become a LEAF Pro Bono Lawyer
    • Partner with LEAF
  • About
    • Our Story
    • Mission & Vision
    • Staff
    • Board
    • Law Program Committee
    • FAQs
  • Cases and Law Reform
    • Our Work
    • Issue Areas
      • Reproductive Justice
      • Indigenous Rights and Law
      • Identity-Based Oppression
      • Hate Speech and Online Hate
      • Sexual Assault and Consent Law
      • Gender-Based Violence
      • Access to Justice
      • Workplace Rights
      • Socio-Economic Rights
      • Family Law
    • Search Cases & Submissions
    • Current Work
      • Accountability Project
      • Avenues to Justice
      • Strengthening Community Capacity
      • Technology-Facilitated Violence
      • Valuing the Care Economy
    • Past Projects
    • Legal Resources
  • Education
    • Overview
    • Workshops, trainings & webinars
    • Factsheets & infographics
  • News & Events
    • Search News & Events
    • Events
  • Publications
    • Search Publications
    • Working Papers
    • Reports
    • Annual Reports
  • Regional Branches
    • Overview
    • LEAF Calgary
    • LEAF Edmonton
    • LEAF Halifax
    • LEAF Hamilton
    • LEAF Kitchener-Waterloo
    • LEAF London
    • LEAF Newfoundland & Labrador
    • LEAF Ottawa
    • LEAF Saskatchewan
    • LEAF Sudbury
    • LEAF Toronto
    • LEAF Windsor
    • LEAF Winnipeg
  • Get Involved
    • Ways to Get Involved
    • Donate to LEAF
    • Join a Branch
    • Volunteer
    • Become a LEAF Pro Bono Lawyer
    • Partner with LEAF
Home / News & Events / Search News & Events

News

LEAF calls on Government of Canada to fund abortion services abroad

October 21, 2013

The Honourable Christian Paradis, P.C., MP
Confederation Building Room 507
Ottawa, ONK1A 0A6

The Honourable Kellie Leitch, P.C., MP
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6

Dear Ministers Paradis and Leitch,

As organizations who are deeply committed to the rights of women and girls, we are very concerned by recent statements regarding the Government of Canada’s refusal to fund safe abortion services abroad, including in cases of rape and for young women and girls in forced marriages. This approach represents a serious setback on women’s human rights and the health and wellbeing of survivors of sexual violence and girls in early and forced marriages.

As many as 70%of women experience physical or sexual violence in their lifetime, and the first sexual experience among up to a third of them is forced. These women are twice as likely to experience unintended pregnancies. A significant proportion of these women and girls seek to terminate these pregnancies. Legal and social barriers and a lack of availability of quality services lead to the 22 million unsafe abortions that the WHO estimates take place each year, which result in 13% of the maternal deaths that occur worldwide. Death and injury from unsafe
abortion increases dramatically in conflict situations, where women and girls are often vulnerable to rape, sexual assault and other gender-based violence. In such situations, 20-50% of maternal deaths are related to unsafe abortion. UN Secretary General, Ban-Ki Moon has made clear that “access to safe emergency contraception and services for the termination of pregnancies resulting from rape should be an integral component of any multisectoral response.”

The health needs, including the sexual and reproductive health needs, of the millions of married young women and girls must also be addressed by Canadian efforts on early and forced marriage overseas. Married girls are twice as likely to experience sexual violence, encounter unwanted pregnancies and seek to terminate those pregnancies. WHO evidence shows that restrictions placed on abortion services or the lack of availability of safe services do not reduce abortion rates. They force women and adolescent girls to turn to unsafe methods and unskilled providers which can result in permanent disability or death. These deaths are entirely preventable. In low and middle income countries, complications from pregnancy and childbirth are the leading cause of death among girls aged 15-19.

The majority of countries worldwide permit abortion either in cases of rape or to preserve a woman’s mental health. Globally, 134 countries permit abortion to preserve a woman’s mental health, in cases of rape and/or upon request. Twenty-four out of Canada’s thirty-three “countries of focus” for international development permit abortion on grounds of women’s mental health, rape or without restriction. Given the legal permissibility of abortion in most of these countries as well as in Canada, there is ample scope for Canadian international cooperation efforts to support increased access to safe and legal abortion services for women and adolescent girls as part of a comprehensive and integrated package of sexual and reproductive health services. According to the WHO: “Ready access to contraception and to early, safe abortion significantly reduces high rates of maternal mortality and morbidity; it prevents the costs currently imposed by unsafe abortion on health systems and on society and individuals.”

Canada’s refusal to provide women with access to safe abortion services constitutes not only a deeply troubling inconsistency with Canadian law, which permits abortion regardless of reason as an essential medical service, but 1Includes the 14 countries of the Caribbean programme.
also international agreements that Canada has made. In the ICPD Programme of Action and the Beijing Platform for Action, governments agreed and committed to provide women with a comprehensive package of sexual and reproductive health services, including safe abortion. Failing to provide women and adolescent girls with access to a comprehensive package of sexual and reproductive health services, which includes safe abortion, denies them their human rights, including their fundamental rights to life, to health, to bodily autonomy, to decide freely
about the number and spacing of children, to self-determination, to freedom from torture, and to freedom from discrimination as well as the right to be protected from violence. By insisting that Canadian funds cannot be used to fund access to safe abortion services, Canada is complicit in the continued violation of women’s and girls’ human rights overseas.

We call on the Canadian government to:
1. Include access to safe abortion services as part of the package of sexual and reproductive health services funded by Canadian international cooperation initiatives;
2. Support effective strategies to ensure that survivors of sexual violence and young women and girls in early and forced marriage have access to a comprehensive package of sexual and reproductive health services, including safe abortion; and
3. Produce clear policy for Canada’s international initiatives that adopts a human rights-based approach to sexual and reproductive health.

The lives of women around the world, particularly survivors of sexual violence and married young women and girls, depend on their access to a life-saving service. Canada can be a leader on these issues: let’s not let women and girls down.

Sincerely,
The undersigned organizations:

  • Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada (ARCC) / Coalition pour le droit à l’avortement au Canada (CDAC)
  • Action Canada for Population and Development / Action Canada pour la population et le développement
  • Amnesty International Canada (English)
  • Amnistie International Canada (Francophone)
  • Canadian Council of Muslim Women
  • Canadian Federation for Sexual Health
  • Canadian Federation of University Women
  • Canadian Women’s Foundation
  • Choice in Health Clinic
  • Clinique des femmes de l’Outaouais
  • Fédération du Québec pour le planning des naissances (FQPN)
  • Kensington Clinic
  • Institute for International Women’s Rights – Manitoba
  • Inter Pares
  • MATCH International Women’s Fund
  • Oxfam Canada
  • Oxfam Quebec
  • Planned Parenthood Ottawa
  • West Coast LEAF
  • Women’s Health Clinic, Winnipeg
  • Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund / Fonds d’action et d’education juridiques pour les femmes
  • YWCA Canada
  • CC The Right Honourable Stephen Harper, P.C.
  • Prime Minister of Canada
  • CC Hélène Laverdière, NPD, MP
  • NDP International Development Critic
  • CC Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, MP
  • Liberal International Development and Status of Women Critic
  • CC Paul Dewar, NDP, MP
  • NDP Foreign Affairs Critic
  • CC Marc Garneau, Liberal, MP
  • Liberal Foreign Affairs Critic
  • CC Niki Ashton, NDP, MP
  • NDP Status of Women Critic

Let's Change The Law to Uphold Gender Equality
Donate
Join Us!

Related Project

Loading...
Woman smiling touching foreheads with a small child
Past Project
Reproductive Justice Project

Related Cases

Loading...

Christian Medical and Dental Society of Canada v. CPSO (2019)

This case concerned access to reproductive health services.

Abortion Access Now PEI v. Government of PEI (2016)

This case concerned access to abortion in Prince Edward Island (PEI).
More Cases

Related Issue Area

Loading...

Reproductive Justice

LEAF_FAEJ_hz_names_colour_rgb_rev
Donate to support equality

National Office
180 Dundas Street West, Suite 1420
Toronto, ON M5G 1Z8
[email protected]
Phone: 416.595.7170
Toll-free: 1.888.824.5323
Facsimile: 416.595.7191

Linkedin

Stay up to date on feminist law and LEAF’s work to advance gender equality



LEAF_FAEJ_hz_names_colour_rgb_rev

National Office
180 Dundas Street West, Suite 1420
Toronto, ON M5G 1Z8
[email protected]
Phone: 416.595.7170
Fax: 416.595.7191

Charitable Registration Number: 10821 9916 RR0001

Facebook-f Twitter Instagram Linkedin

Stay up to date on feminist law and LEAF’s work to advance gender equality



Donate to support equality
Donate to support equality

© 2020 Women’s Legal Education & Action Fund (LEAF). All rights reserved. | Legal & Privacy | Accessibility | Website by Affinity Bridge

MENU

  • About
    • Our Story
    • Mission & Vision
    • Staff
    • Board
    • Law Program Committee
    • FAQs
  • Cases and Law Reform
    • Our Work
    • Issue Areas
      • Reproductive Justice
      • Indigenous Rights and Law
      • Identity-Based Oppression
      • Hate Speech and Online Hate
      • Sexual Assault and Consent Law
      • Gender-Based Violence
      • Access to Justice
      • Workplace Rights
      • Socio-Economic Rights
      • Family Law
    • Search Cases & Submissions
    • Current Work
      • Accountability Project
      • Avenues to Justice
      • Strengthening Community Capacity
      • Technology-Facilitated Violence
      • Valuing the Care Economy
    • Past Projects
    • Legal Resources
  • Education
    • Overview
    • Workshops, trainings & webinars
    • Factsheets & infographics
  • News & Events
    • Search News & Events
    • Events
  • Publications
    • Search Publications
    • Working Papers
    • Reports
    • Annual Reports
  • Regional Branches
    • Overview
    • LEAF Calgary
    • LEAF Edmonton
    • LEAF Halifax
    • LEAF Hamilton
    • LEAF Kitchener-Waterloo
    • LEAF London
    • LEAF Newfoundland & Labrador
    • LEAF Ottawa
    • LEAF Saskatchewan
    • LEAF Sudbury
    • LEAF Toronto
    • LEAF Windsor
    • LEAF Winnipeg
  • Get Involved
    • Ways to Get Involved
    • Donate to LEAF
    • Join a Branch
    • Volunteer
    • Become a LEAF Pro Bono Lawyer
    • Partner with LEAF
  • English
  • Français