CLC Blog

March 9, 2023 (Campaign Life Coalition) – A Ugandan Member of Parliament along with a Nigerian representative told a Canadian federal foreign affairs committee this week that Africa does not need or want contraception and abortion exported from Western nations to develop, but education, housing, and clean drinking water.

“Our people are still loyal to religious truths and cultures,” said Ugandan Member of Parliament Lucy Akello in person to the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development that met on March 7 to discuss the topic of “sexual and reproductive health and rights of women globally.”

The meeting opened with Elizabeth Sully of the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute lamenting to the committee about the overturn of Roe in the U.S. in the spring of 2022 causing the risk of “backsliding” on the “progress” Western nations have achieved in Africa and other countries in pushing contraception and abortion.

Akello responded that African people see through the West’s expensive marketing campaigns to make “abortion look good.”

“The women I represent are able to see through this,” she said. “We believe life starts from conception. And, where I come from, once conception takes place, it is life. And even when you get a miscarriage, that life is given a decent burial, irrespective of the sex. Africa generally finds abortion repugnant.”

Ugandan Member of Parliament Lucy Akello meets with the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development, March 7, 2023, Ottawa, Canada. 

She referred to surveys across African countries that show that most Africans reject abortion.

“Almost 80 percent of African countries have some sort of law prohibiting and restricting abortion. And, it is predicated on a widely held belief that unborn babies have a right to live and deserve to be protected by law. With this relevant view of abortion, most people are satisfied with these laws.”

Akello said that African women who have been peddled hormonal contraception have complained about what the pills are doing to their overall health.

“Women are hurting from the side effects of hormonal contraception. And, they talk about it with each other. Contraceptive side effects are a major deterrent to consistent use of contraception. And, women who experience bleedings, specific side-effects, are most likely to make a choice of contraceptive discontinuation and switching.”

She also took issue with the Western push for “comprehensive sexuality education” in her country, which is largely synonymous with promoting promiscuity, homosexuality, and gender-confusion.

“The parents I represent see comprehensive sexuality education as an assault to the health and innocence of children,” Akello said.

Akello concluded her presentation by recommending that the Canadian government along with Parliament direct foreign aid resources into “keeping the girl-child at school as opposed to giving them contraceptives.”

“Where I come from, there is a push to even put girls as young as 13, 14 on contraception. What does this do to a young girl? I also recommend that you respect Uganda as a sovereignty,” she added.

The Liberal government under pro-abortion leader Justin Trudeau has pledged hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to export contraception and abortion to developing countries. It is resulting in a creeping genocide of the African people.  By 2023-24, through its “Feminist International Assistance Policy,” the Trudeau government will be committing $700 million per year for “sexual and reproductive health and rights,” a euphemism for abortion on demand, age-inappropriate sex education, and the promotion of gender ideology in developing countries. This budget funnels millions of dollars to abortion advocacy groups such as International Planned Parenthood Federation, Marie Stopes International, Women Deliver, and others that provide contraception and abortion and work to influence local institutions and legislatures to liberalize laws where abortion remains illegal.

Campaign Life Coalition highlighted in its 2021 documentary “Obsessed: Canada’s Coercive Diplomacy” how the Trudeau Liberals use the carrot of humanitarian aid to coerce developing nations into accepting Western priorities of contraception, abortion, homosexuality, and the early sexualization of children.

Aware of this trend, MP Garnett Genuis (Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan), who is Vice-Chair of the Foreign Affairs committee, asked Akello during the meeting what are the “development priorities of local women in Uganda,” adding, “how can we ensure that our development assistance relates to local priorities instead of bringing in predetermined Western priorities?”

Akello responded that Western governments that want to help must respect the priorities of the country in the help that they offer.

“For long, I worked with civil society before joining politics. And, one thing that was so good at that time: when the donors would come to us, they would ask, ‘What are your values, what does your culture say about this, this, and this?’ And, they would say, ‘we will fit into your culture.’ But, now things have changed. What is now happening is, you must now fit, the donors come and tell you, you must fit in our values, you must fit in our culture. Which is really for me wrong because if you want to help me, come build what I have, as opposed to making me fit in your priorities,” she said.

“Right now, as I say, our priority is to keep the girl at school. And when you keep the girl at school…when the girl stays at school she will definitely stay out of unwanted pregnancy and will not need abortion for her. We will not need contraception for her. That is for me the development priority that I think we need. We need more functional health centres for our women and our children as opposed to more money for contraceptives and family planning and abortion.”

At one point during the meeting, Sully of the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute revealed the real reason why abortion must be made available in the developing world.

“Contraceptive methods fail,” she said, adding “they all fail at some point or another. And so, we need a second line of defence – and, that’s safe abortion.”

Pro-life advocates have pointed out the link between contraception use and an increase in the abortion rate. Instead of decreasing abortion, widespread use of contraception goes hand in hand with an increase in the abortion rate, something that financially benefits the abortion industry. Former abortion clinic owner Carol Everett revealed in 2014 how the industry promotes contraception knowing full well that it will lead to abortion.

Also addressing the standing committee on Foreign Affairs was Dr. Theresa Okafor, director of the Foundation for African Cultural Heritage. She spoke about how African people are “deeply concerned” about the “paternalism” and “imperialist approach” that has been used by Western countries, specifically Canada, in its aid to African nations.

“Support for the African woman should not be one which strips her of her right to family stability, a right to raise her intellectual and moral compass, a right to economic empowerment, and social inclusivity, also known as, equity and proper health care. These rights are largely ignored and substituted with unsolicited rights to abortion — ‘safe abortion,’ whatever that means — contraception, comprehensive sexuality education, to mention a few.”

Okafor pointed out, contrary to the non-African speakers at the committee meeting, that there is “no international right to abortion.” She said that “it is increasingly plain” that foreign funding under Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy is “becoming less about aid, empowerment, health care, and poverty reduction, and more about ideological colonization.”

“Many African countries are overflowing with condoms and contraception from the West sent to us to fulfill a fictitious ‘unmet need’ for contraception when what we really need is water, food, housing, employment, and quality education that can break the intergenerational cycle of poverty,” she said.

Answering a question later on, Okafor said that Africans “do not want imported values that actually prioritize sexuality in our continent,” adding that the African continent can “only be uplifted from poverty when priority is given to the areas that need to be prioritized.”

“We need what can help [women] develop, and not necessarily prioritizing sex all the time, because I see that there is an obsession to sexualize our continent. And, that is the problem that we’re having at the United Nations, when [instead] arguments should be focused on good governance, on employability, on quality education, on food, on clean water, on adequate nutrition.”

MP Genuis asked Okafor if foreign governments were involved in performing or supporting “illegal abortions” in African countries where abortion is outlawed.

“Unfortunately, foreign governments have been supporting abortion in African states where abortion is illegal,” she replied, stating that groups that facilitate illegal abortions include International Planned Parenthood, as well as Global Affairs Canada through its Feminist International Assistance Policy.

What Dr. Okafor called the “paternalistic” and “imperialist approach” of the West was on full display when Liberal MP Robert Oliphant (Don Valley West) decided to “address” Ugandan MP Akello’s presentation by taking issue with the country’s defence of male-female marriage that has led the country to target sexual practices contrary to the human body’s design and nature. Oliphant used his time in the meeting to hammer Akello and her country for crafting “offensive” laws and a bill about to be voted on that he said are “outdated, have no bearing in science, in religion, or in law.” Preaching from his white colonial soap box, he said such legislation would “isolate Uganda from the rest of the world.”

Responding to MP Oliphant’s patronizing comments, Akello said that she was invited to the committee meeting to discuss sexual and reproductive health, adding that if Oliphant wished to discuss legislation in Uganda, “we’ll talk about it when my sovereign nation of Uganda has made a decision on it.”

Uganda is to be highly praised for strongly valuing life, family, and marriage. Ugandan MP Akello and Nigerian Dr. Okafor are to be lauded for their courage in facing the Canadian government and telling it to stop destroying the future of the African people through contraception and abortion.