Foreign Affairs committee  There are the social and the economic costs. It's the community cost. It's the cost at every level. There's research out of the USAID that says that the economic cost is somewhere around $15 billion a year around maternal deaths. I don't know the source of that, but I've read that in the materials.

Foreign Affairs committee  One of the five issues International Planned Parenthood Federation addresses is HIV/AIDS. The others are safe abortion, advocacy, access to sexual and reproductive health services, and adolescents, all of which would address in an integrated and comprehensive manner the issues you are talking about.

Foreign Affairs committee  The economic numbers came out this morning: first quarter, 6.1% productivity in Canada. We can do it. The eurozone is in big trouble. We have the money. We should change that flatlining. We should change that in the next budget and we should increase aid, not decrease aid, and we should have a significant amount of money for this maternal and child health initiative.

Foreign Affairs committee  We have been in touch with the other governments and civil society in different countries. In fact, in a couple of weeks we'll be releasing.... We've had a series of letters from parliamentarians around the world. We had a letter from the Ugandan all-party group on population and development, which was written to this government, setting out their position that safe abortion should be included in this maternal health initiative.

Foreign Affairs committee  We are a human rights advocacy organization. We do not have charitable status. We are funded by the United Nations Population Fund, we have two grants from the Ford Foundation, and we are funded through the European Parliamentary Forum.

Foreign Affairs committee  We're funded by private foundations and the United Nations.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you for the question. Certainly, the international community has agreed for decades that individuals and couples have the right to decide the number, timing, and spacing of their children. In 1994--and that was 15 years ago--reproductive rights were recognized for the first time by the international community.

Foreign Affairs committee  I think it's just been a suggestion from the civil society that it would be one way to avoid a “rob Peter to pay Paul” scenario. But with the other, commitments around Haiti, you know....

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you. ACPD is a human rights advocacy organization, which focuses primarily on women's rights and sexual and reproductive rights. Around the world in the past year there has been unprecedented global attention on the issue of maternal mortality as both a health issue and a human rights issue.

Status of Women committee  I think if Canada goes forward and builds on the concepts and the language from last year's agreement--

Status of Women committee  Yes, last year's Italy agreement. If they adopt that again as part of the communiqué and the outcome documents of the summit, that would then lay the groundwork for others not to backtrack or international agreements to backslide. However, it's my opinion, I guess, given the statements made by the development minister yesterday at the foreign affairs committee, that Canada would probably have a restricted level of funding in terms of reproductive health.

Status of Women committee  The Women Deliver conference is bringing together 3,500 experts and professionals from around the world, including many development cooperation ministers. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is likely to open the conference. There are 80 parliamentarians from all over the world, from every G-20 country and beyond, attending that conference.

Status of Women committee  Canada showed leadership during the Cairo conference. Canada showed leadership at the Beijing conference. Canada showed leadership at every UN meeting attended throughout the nineties and the 2000s. We now cannot count on Canada to even use the term “gender equality” at UN forums.

Status of Women committee  Absolutely. If I may quickly answer that, I also think linking it to the ODA Accountability Act and our responsibility to deliver aid consistently with international and human rights standards is extremely important. I would like to see this government do an analysis, do the legal research, to determine whether or not we are complying with those standards in the ODA Accountability Act.