Canada Targets Guatemala for Abortion Advocacy

OTTAWA, JULY 11, 2001 (Zenit.org).- A leading pro-lifer from Guatemala decried a Canadian agency´s support of a U.N. campaign to promote chemical abortions in her home country, LifeSite News reported.

Share this Entry

Mercedes Arzú Wilson, founder and president of the Family of the Americas Foundation, told LifeSite «it is horrible that Canadian taxpayers are going to pay for something that will do so much harm to our country.»

The Canadian International Development Agency has put $1.3 million (U.S.) into a five-year United Nations Population Fund campaign which, according to CIDA, aims for «increased demand, supply, access and quality of reproductive health services, including contraceptives, in Guatemala.»

Moreover the plan aims to promote a change in law advocating population control. The CIDA document lists as one of its components for support: «advocacy for a law on population and development.»

Wilson told LifeSite that the U.N. fund´s activities in the largely Catholic country are to promote abortifacient birth control pills, such as morning-after pills, and to advocate for the decriminalization of abortion.

She noted: «In the poor countries we don´t have the hospitals or facilities to deal with the complications of these abortifacients.»

The CIDA release notes that the «UNFPA will work in partnership with the Ministry of Health and other relevant ministries to address the key constraints that have prevented the Health Ministry from meeting the large unmet demand for reproductive health services.»

See the CIDA release on the UNFPA Guatemala project at

http://www.acdi-cida.gc.ca/cida_ind.nsf/852562900065549a85256250006cbb1a/88adb217c056956285256a84004378e3?OpenDocument

Share this Entry

ZENIT Staff

Support ZENIT

If you liked this article, support ZENIT now with a donation