Support Bros

One of the greatest things about PM Stephen Harper's sudden professed interest in women's well-being -- at least that of those women who don't live in Canada, of course -- is how it's making many men here owning up to being pro-choice. They're actually blogging about it.

Now, a quick look at the male opinionators listed in my blogroll will reveal that there were already many guys out there who got it. It's just that, now, even more are speaking out. (And, yeah, even if it's about scoring partisan political points, who cares? We women need all the Support Bros we can get.)

In the US, in the wake of that Tebow anti-choice uproar, feminist bloggers are cheering on the likes of pro-footballer Scott Fujita as well as these guys:

Which brings us to this post today by BCer in Toronto Jeff Jedras (I added the boldface):

In a story in Embassy Mag (behind a subscriber firewall, but I’ve pasted the relevant sections below) Canadian International Development Minister Bev Oda confirms safe abortions, and even contraception, will not be part of the Conservative push on maternal and child care:

Oda says no abortion, contraceptives support
   

But the WHO reports that lack of both contributes to unnecessary deaths.

CIDA Minister Bev Oda says the government's child and maternal health strategy will not address unsafe abortions in developing countries or support access to family planning and contraceptives. Rather, she said that to ensure the aid agency remains effective, "it's the lives of mothers and babies that we are focused on."

<SNIP>

When asked about support for contraceptives and family planning in an interview last week, Ms. Oda said: "In order to maintain our focus, again our focus is on maternal and child health and mortality rates.

"We want to make sure that mothers, pregnant women, are healthy and can have safe births, and that the birthing process is made safer because if you look at the number of births during the actual birthing process, that's where a number of maternal deaths happen," she added.

"We also want to make sure when babies are born, they are born as healthy as possible so that they can live through their early age, up to the age of five, with as strong and good health as possible."

Which is pretty much on the same HarperCon Wombs on Wheels message track she was on when she spoke to CBC Radio's Carol Off last week.

I won't belabour all the reasons why maternal healthcare includes contraception, family planning, AIDS prevention and, yes, abortion. I've done it so often. I just want to emphasize Jedras' point:

The idea of a major push to address maternal and child care is a noble one. But ideology can’t be allowed to dictate the program and the help we’re going to give to women in need. We should listen to the experts on the ground about what is needed and what will be effective to meet the goals we’re trying to achieve and let them direct the resources accordingly.

That has always been the Canadian policy, and the Conservatives desire to address this challenge is legitimate, it shouldn’t change it now. Sadly, though, it seems that the trend of the Harper Conservatives allowing ideology to guide development and aid decisions is ever expanding.

Jedras also dug up this video. It's from CBC News yesterday.

Please pay special attention to the note The Family Canada put up with it.

Your letters and emails to Members of Parliament has paid off! Shelly Glover confirms that Abortion will now not be included in the Canadian Government's plan to help women and children overseas.

Pray for the Conservative Party of Canada and our Prime Minister! Donate and volunteer your time at www.conservative.ca

Forward this video to all of your Christian friends!!!!!

Canada: Now Under OMG Management.

UPPITY WOMAN DATE: Joyce Arthur has more.

Of course, Ignatieff is a politician, and bringing up abortion is no doubt a political strategy in part – but it’s also the absolutely right thing for him to do. It is impossible to tackle maternal health without addressing unsafe abortion, which is a leading cause of maternal death in most developing countries. Given the critical importance of legal safe abortion in saving women’s lives, and the Conservative Party’s well-known anti-choice stance, Ignatieff would have been remiss not to make it a burning issue. The majority of women in Canada are pro-choice, and we are surprised, pleased, and hopeful to see Ignatieff stand up to defend the rights of poor women in other countries.

Conservative politicians and commentators have heaped scorn on Ignatieff’s concerns, however, and condemned him for turning women’s health into a “political football.” But most of the politicking is actually coming from Ignatieff’s critics, who have launched attacks without the benefit of any facts, and even less compassion for women. Some of the coverage is so shockingly ignorant that it qualifies as being misogynist.

Go to her page for a misogyny round-up.

If you can bear it.

Comments

[hysperia]

Yay women, Yay support bros. Love it, keep it up!

[fern hill]

Great piece by Joyce Arthur. A must-bookmark for bloggers.

Harper's hypocrisy is astonishing, isn't it? I mean, even for him.

[Atheistincanada]

I watched that clip a few times! Makes me swoon...

[stellersjay]

You might mention to Joyce that the page can't be viewed. Firefox returns this message:

“The page you are trying to view cannot be shown because it uses an invalid or unsupported form of compression.”

[Antonia]

Works for me, and I'm on FF 3.5.7

[The Stygian and his Shemitish Dogs]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmvorF22sR0&feature=related

isn't this the meaning of "bro"?

try "fre" (frere)?, etc. I could show off, but you get the point.

[Jim M]

Shelly Glover's had to stick to an oversimplified script and control the stage to survive in that interview, which is why we see the raised hand making the stop sign at the imaginary crosswalk. Apparently, this is what it looks like to walk-the-talk and talk-the-walk while sitting. If Shelly Glover's spin is strong indication of something, my guess is that it will be a thing in the form of the Conservative Party running a "Pray instead of Think" campaign, to be mult-level-marketed using multi-level-lies and cast a morality play. I have no idea why extreme right-wing Conservatives, like Shelly Glover, seem to believe that praying and thinking are mutually exclusive. Why doesn't the extreme right try do both at the same time, or just stop spending such a disproportionate amount of their own time trying to convolute the issues for other people which they do not have the patience themselves (or is it the attention span) to think about all the way through, line by line, cover to cover - without resorting to oversimplification, compartmentalization, double-talk and holier than thou religious bigotry? Opposition parties should run a "Pray AND Think" campaign, which should easily defeat Shelly Glover Party's "Pray instead of Think" campaign.

[stellersjay]

Still no love for me, sadly. FF 3.6, OS X 10.5.8.

Sorry about the (likely bewildering) misfire yesterday, Antonia. Yesterday's lesson: Never try to comment on two things at the same time. On a positive note, I did post successfully on Murray Dobbin's Tyee piece on Harper's assault on women.

Thanks for what you do. Some days it's the difference between throwing things and, well, uh, not throwing things.

[Alison]

CBC:This post is not about gay marriage or capital punishment