Canada Renews Funding for Planned Parenthood Abortion Biz

International   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Sep 22, 2011   |   11:15AM   |   Ottawa, Canada

The Conservative Party government in Canada has renewed taxpayer funding for the international affiliate of the Planned Parenthood abortion business, which is the largest in the world.

For most of the year, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been dealing with questions from the Canadian press and pro-life MPs who don’t want the government to restore funding to the International Planned Parenthood Federation abortion business.

The debate came to a head in April when Conservative MP Brad Trost made remarks at the Saskatchewan Pro-life Association convention. Trost defended his remarks saying he is “very proud of the work that I’ve done to help de-fund the International Planned Parenthood Federation and we’ve been able to de-fund it for the last 16 months.”

“We don’t know if it’s going to get funding after the election. That’s why I said what I said to encourage people to continue to talk about it,” he added.

The Canadian government had not officially accepted or denied a request from the abortion business for $18 million in taxpayer funding to promote and perform abortions across the globe, but Harper’s administration, according to a CBC report, has now approved it.

CBC News reports that the Harper administration will fund Planned Parenthood to promote family planning in nations where abortions are currently illegal. International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda reportedly approved the proposal to fund Planned Parenthood’s work in those nations. Although it does not pay for abortions, pro-life advocates don’t want to see their money fund an abortion business and they worry Planned Parenthood will lobby pro-life countries to weaken or remove their pro-life laws.

CBC indicates the funding will amount to $6 million over three years and will allow the abortion giant to push its agenda in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Mali, Sudan and Tanzania — all nations where abortion is prohibited except to save the life of the mother.

Paul Bell, a Planned Parenthood representative, told the CBC that it submitted the application for funding again after the most recent national election and that it had not yet heard anything from the Canadian International Development Agency, which approved the grant.

Back in April, Harper responded to the abortion funding debate by saying the Conservative government will never endorse pro-life legislation as long as he is the Prime Minister.

“As long as I’m prime minister, we are not reopening the abortion debate,” he said. “The government will not bring forward any such legislation, and any such legislation that is brought forward will be defeated. This is not the priority of the Canadian people, or of this government. The priority is the economy. That’s what we’re going to focus on.”

“In our party, as in any broadly based party, there are people with a range of views on this issue,” he told reporters, and would not answer a question about his own views on abortion, saying, “My position is I’m not opening this debate. I don’t want it opened, I have not wanted it opened, I haven’t opened it as prime minister. I’m not going to open it. The public doesn’t want to open it. It’s not the priority of the Canadian public or this government, and it will not be.”

Harper voted against a modest bill in the Parliament that would have provided protection for women and unborn children who are victims of violent crimes outside the context of abortion.