Foreign Affairs committee  Yes, of course. In Canada in particular, as I also noted with respect to other countries, what we continue to see is that people who lack access to these services are in rural and remote areas. They are of lower economic status. They have fewer resources and means to navigate the health care system.

Foreign Affairs committee  I wouldn't name any countries in particular. I think that at the same time as we are recognizing the risk of backsliding, as was noted by a previous witness, we've also seen a significant amount of progress in legalizing access to abortion and withdrawing restrictions that exist.

Foreign Affairs committee  I think it is about continuing to be present in those international spaces. The high-level political forum of the SDGs that was mentioned earlier is also an excellent opportunity for Canada to demonstrate where we are doing well and where we can do better on this at home as a kind of indication of what good progress looks like.

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes. Our opinion has always been that we do not need further legislation to protect those rights in Canada and that introducing legislation around abortion presents a high risk of, in fact, closing access as opposed to increasing it.

Foreign Affairs committee  I think that Canada has taken many positive steps, from the introduction of the Muskoka program to the introduction of the 10-year commitment that we currently have. The FIAP—the feminist international assistance policy—has also been a huge policy piece whereby Canada has been able to very clearly carve out what taking an integrated and feminist approach to international assistance looks like.

Foreign Affairs committee  I think that would be a question for Statistics Canada.

Foreign Affairs committee  Again, with our health care system provisions, those numbers are lower in Canada than they are in many countries around the world, but broadly the same populations remain at risk. Again, young people who lack access to comprehensive sexuality education that would inform them about the risks related to sexually transmitted diseases are less well prepared to navigate preventing these diseases.

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes, we are the result of a merger of those organizations that took place in 2014.

Foreign Affairs committee  Organizations like the Association for Women's Rights in Development, through the “Rights at Risk” report they produce annually, as well as the European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual and Reproductive Rights, have done an excellent job of tracking financial investments that are going into organizations that are doing active work, either legal work or public advocacy, to undermine access to these rights.

Foreign Affairs committee  As has been mentioned, we've seen backsliding on these rights in many different settings and many different places of the world. I think Canada has a huge platform to stand on with the investment that we've made. There is an opportunity that needs to be leveraged in order to take global leadership and work with others to continue to ensure that we make progress on these rights.

Foreign Affairs committee  Certainly. One of the things we have long called for, which I understand we will likely see the introduction of soon in Canada, is a national sexual health survey, providing a kind of broad census information around some of these points in particular. It is difficult across the federal system to compile data from a clinical level up to a provincial level and to a national standard.

Foreign Affairs committee  Through both the financial commitment that Canada has made in our international development assistance and the way we are showing up at international forums like the Human Rights Council, the Commission on the Status of Women and the Commission on Population and Development, Canada has been largely clear that we are standing in support of these rights.

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes, thank you. As I mentioned, there are the neglected areas of abortion, contraception access, CSE and advocacy for SRHR. There is the neglected among the neglected of investment in abortion and comprehensive sexual health education. It's under $2 million in 2020-21 that Canada invested in access to safe abortion services.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you for the question. As of 2020-21, we know that Canada has made significant investments in UNFPA programming. We've made contributions to UNFPA core funding. We have also made investments in the UNFPA supplies mechanism, which is the multilateral institutions' specific contraception provision services.

Foreign Affairs committee  Only in 2021 have we been able to concretely see the number of investments that Canada has made in abortion services. We can't say that there has been an increase or a decrease in our financing in particular. Around the world, I think we have seen a reduction in spending around SRHR programming writ large.