| Funding of the International Planned Parenthood Federation |
| 07 October 2011 | |
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October 4, 2011 The Right Honorable Stephen Harper, P.C., M.P. Prime Minister of Canada 80 Wellington Street Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A2 RE: Funding of the International Planned Parenthood Federation Dear Prime Minister, In a letter dated February 2, 2010, the Catholic Organization for Life and Family (COLF) applauded the efforts of your government to provide international leadership in the field of maternal and infant health care. We were heartened when we learned that the terms of the Muskoka Maternal/Child Health Initiative excluded the funding of abortion. It was, therefore, with dismay that we learned recently that the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF)—the world’s largest abortion provider and promoter—is to receive $6 million through a grant from CIDA over the next three years to fund “education programs” in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Mali, Sudan, and Tanzania. The International Planned Parenthood Federation defines access to safe abortion as an “intrinsic part of maternal health.” IPPF works aggressively to dismantle abortion laws in countries where abortion is prohibited and to have abortion recognized as a universal human “right.” It would be naïve, therefore, to think that Canadian tax dollars will not be used by IPPF to promote abortion in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Mali, Sudan, and Tanzania. Under the guise of “education,” this money will be used to advance IPPF’s fallacious claim that access to abortion is necessary in order to prevent maternal deaths and to promote women’s health.
The fact is that abortion destroys lives. Thousands of women who have been hurt by abortion are speaking out today, hoping to help others avoid the physical, emotional, and psychological suffering they have endured. Their message is clear: they made the wrong choice. Children are not the only victims of the abortion mentality; mothers and fathers are also victims of the abortion culture. Attached, you will find COLF’s message on the occasion of the 2005 March for Life entitled “Free Choice or Freedom of Choice?”, which precisely focuses on post-abortion trauma.
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