Youth Blog

On April 14, I attended a side event at the Norwegian Mission to the United Nations titled “Catalysing innovative financing models in a new global landscape: sustaining and expanding access to SRHR.” It was hosted by MSI Reproductive Choices, Norway, and Ethiopia.

The event made one thing very clear: abortion advocates are not backing down. They are actively working to secure more funding, expand access, and build stronger systems to track abortion and related programs more precisely across the world.

A representative of the Government of Norway openly affirmed support for “safe and legal abortion,” along with modern contraception and comprehensive sexuality education.

Abortion is not safe. Every abortion intentionally kills an innocent human being. It cannot honestly be described as safe when the life of the child is deliberately ended.

The same speaker also claimed that sexual and reproductive health and rights are fundamental for individuals to “realize their full potential.” But the child in the womb is not a potential life. The child is a life with potential. Abortion destroys that potential by ending that child’s life.

Expanding abortion, contraception, and sexuality education

The agenda discussed at this event went beyond abortion alone.

Speakers repeatedly emphasized the importance of expanding access to contraception and comprehensive sexuality education as core components of SRHR. But many forms of contraception can act as abortifacients, meaning they can prevent a newly conceived human being from implanting in the womb, resulting in the loss of that life.

At the same time, so-called comprehensive sexuality education was promoted as essential. These programs are increasingly used to introduce explicit sexual content and ideologies to children at young ages, undermining parental rights and exposing children to material that is not age-appropriate.

Building new financial mechanisms

The purpose of the event was not just ideological, it was financial.

Speakers focused heavily on shrinking overseas development aid and the need to create “innovative financing mechanisms” to sustain and expand these programs globally. UNFPA described systems designed to push governments to spend more of their own money on these initiatives, while international organizations match or incentivize that spending.

One mechanism described was a match fund, where for every dollar a government spends on these programs, UNFPA provides an additional dollar in commodities. The goal is to embed these programs into national budgets and make them permanent parts of public health systems.

A push for more detailed abortion tracking

One of the most revealing parts of the event was the discussion on data and tracking.

A speaker from Avenir Health argued that abortion should no longer remain “in the shadows” and that there needs to be far more precise tracking of abortion services and costs. She emphasized the need to distinguish between surgical abortions and chemical abortions, the latter often referred to as “medical abortions,” a term that masks the reality that these drugs are used to end the life of a child, not to heal.

She also stated that abortion should not be lumped in with family planning, but should have its own clearly defined category. There was also discussion of tracking abortion provision through pharmacies, particularly in relation to chemical abortions.

In short, they are building systems to track abortion more precisely: how it is done, where it is done, and how it is funded.

Why this matters in Canada

This is especially important for Canadians.

In Canada, it is often difficult to obtain accurate abortion data. Not all facilities report. Chemical abortions are frequently undercounted or excluded. Public reporting is incomplete.

Yet at this event, abortion advocates made it clear that they understand the importance of precise data. They want detailed tracking. They want clear distinctions between types of abortion. They want country-specific data systems.

If accurate abortion data is essential for expanding these programs globally, Canadians should be asking why our own system lacks transparency.

A clear look at their priorities

This event provided a clear look at the priorities of the abortion movement at the international level.

They are working to:

• expand abortion access,
• increase funding,
• promote contraception that can act as abortifacients,
• push comprehensive sexuality education onto children,
• and build more advanced systems to track and scale these efforts worldwide.

They spoke of “safe abortion.” But abortion intentionally kills an innocent human being.

They spoke of helping individuals reach their “full potential.” But abortion destroys the future of a child who is already alive and already has that potential.

They spoke of innovation. What they are building is a more efficient system to fund, track, and expand the destruction of innocent human life.