Global Affairs ATIP Part 2 - Canadians are safer when the world shares our abortion values

Part 1 on my ATIP to Global Affairs Canada regarding $650M funding for reproductive rights: A women has economic power when she chooses abortion

Part 2

This may surprise you. But did you know that Canadians are safer when the world shares our abortion "values"? That these abortion values form the "core of our foreign policy"? That these abortion values are a "basic justice and also basic economics"?

I did not make this up.

Here is what Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland said when introducing Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy:

"It is worth reminding ourselves why we step up—why we devote time and resources to foreign policy, trade, defence and development: Canadians are safer and more prosperous when more of the world shares our values. 

Those values include feminism and the promotion of the rights of women and girls.

It is important—and historic—that we have a prime minister and a government proud to proclaim themselves as feminists. Women’s rights are human rights. This includes sexual and reproductive rights—and the right to access safe and legal abortions. These rights are at the core of our foreign policy. 

I am delighted my colleague the Minister of International Development and La Francophonie is launching Canada’s first Feminist International Assistance Policy, which targets gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls. We are positioning Canada at the forefront of this global effort. This is a matter of basic justice and also basic economics. We know that empowering women, overseas and here at home, makes families and countries more prosperous. 

Now is the time to rise to the great challenges of this century. As I said in the government’s foreign policy statement, our job today is to preserve the achievements of previous generations, and to build on them, as we are doing through Canada’s first Feminist International Assistance Policy."" (emphasis added)

The Honourable Chrystia Freeland
Minister of Foreign Affairs

Global Affairs ATIP Part 3 - Bill Clinton - do we believe the women or not?