‘If you push it there will be more backlash’
International women’s rights advocates opposed to Canada’s decision to scrap abortion funding for developing countries were warned by a Conservative senator to pipe down.
“We’ve got five weeks or whatever left until the G8 starts. Shut the fuck up on this issue” Senator Nancy Ruth said during a panel discussion earlier this week with international aid groups on Parliament Hill. The Harper government recently revealed that abortion funding was excluded in its maternal health policy for Third World countries.
Although shocking in tone the missive apparently was a friendly warning from the pro-choice senator. “If you push it there will be more backlash” Ruth said. “Canada is still a country with free and accessible abortion. Leave it there. Don’t make this an election issue.”
Former Prime Minister Paul Martin appointed Ruth to the Upper Chamber in 2005. In recent years Ruth has advocated geese to be shot and fed to Toronto’s poor and has pushed for the national anthem to be made gender neutral.
