Madam Speaker, I rise today to celebrate the 99th anniversary of International Women's Day, which commemorates the social, political and economic accomplishments of women past and present.
This year, as host of the G8 and G20 meetings, Canada has a wonderful opportunity to demonstrate its commitment to women by honouring its obligations in relation to the millennium development goals in the area of maternal and child health.
We know that the lack of access to contraception or reproductive health services is the cause of tens of thousands of unnecessary maternal deaths each year.
On this International Women's Day, we are asking the government to honour its obligations in relation to the millennium development goals by implementing the excellent recommendations made by Dr. Dorothy Shaw and the partnership for newborn and maternal health.
Unfortunately, the government has not allocated any funds for this in its budget.
Together we can save the lives of over 10 million women by 2015 but we can only do that by respecting women's reproductive rights and keeping--