ONE THING Canada’s Conservative government and the Vatican clearly have in common is implacable opposition to abortion.

Although Prime Minister Stephen Harper is on record as not wanting to change the status quo in Canada, which sees abortion available on demand at hospitals where doctors are willing to perform the procedure, his government won’t allow Canada’s contribution to a G8 fund to pay for abortions in poor countries.

Meanwhile, Pope Benedict XVI, restating long-held Vatican policy, recently termed abortion and same-sex marriage among the most “insidious and dangerous” threats facing the world today, and deplored abortion even of fetuses conceived during rape.

On the other hand, there’s little doubt that many Canadian women who have abortions later regret making the choice and might well not have done so if given proper counselling.

In the circumstances, efforts surely ought to be made to develop a consensus here and abroad, that in most cases abortion should only be a tool of last resort, and that it would be appropriate to have both more education concerning alternatives and financial incentives for healthy pregnant women to have their babies, even if they wish to have them adopted.

Interestingly, some steps take in that direction appear to be paying off. A recent report by the Sex Information and Education Council of Canada attributed better access to contraception, higher quality sex education and shifting social norms as playing roles in a 36.9 per cent decline in Canada’s teen birth and abortion rate between 1996 and 2006.

The report, which appears in the current issue of The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, said the United States experienced a 25 per cent drop while England and Wales showed a decline of only 4.75 per cent and Sweden’s rate increased slightly.

Among the four countries compared for 2006, Canada boasted the lowest teen birth and abortion rate per 1,000 women aged 15 to 19 (27.9), followed by Sweden (31.4), England/Wales (60.3), and the United States (61.2).

Interestingly, the much higher rate in the U.S. is despite laws in many of the states limiting access to abortion.

As we see it, Canada’s apparent success in limiting abortions without any legislative sanctions should provide a model for the Third World, and certainly not lead to the sort of action taken by the Harper government.

The government appears to have ignored expert advice from public servants that abortion is an essential component of an effective maternal-health initiative – advice similar to that recently provided by national scientific academies of all G8 countries.

The Royal Society of Canada as well as the national academies of Britain, the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia issued a joint statement calling on the G8 leaders who meet in Huntsville later this month to ensure that access to contraception and “measures to reduce unsafe abortion” are part of a richer, more focused and more co-ordinated maternal and child health initiative.

The statement came from a meeting of the G8’s national academies in March, where leading scientists and academics noted that botched abortions cause 13 per cent of maternal deaths and cannot be ignored.

“Strategies to improve maternal health should facilitate access to contraception services and measures to reduce unsafe abortion. Up to 40 per cent of maternal and child deaths could be averted by providing access to these services,” the statement said.

“Governments, and inter(-governmental) and non-governmental organizations must deal openly with unsafe abortions and ensure appropriate and accessible treatment of women who develop complications.”

Perhaps the ultimate irony here is that the government’s action comes despite clear evidence of the plight of women in the Third World. Far from enjoying anything resembling “abortion on demand,” they tend to be in paternalistic societies that deny them basic human rights, in war-torn nations where rape is a favourite tool of conquering soldiers, and in societies where Roman Catholicism and other dominant religions preach against any form of contraception in the face of the twin challenges of AIDS and rapid population growth.

Dr. Philip Baker, dean of medicine at the University of Alberta and himself an obstetrician, says the G8 academies were “not in any way advocating abortion” but felt steps to curb unsafe abortions are part of any solution to reduce maternal mortality.

“We thought it was important to have a balanced, evidence-based discussion, and that it wasn’t possible to ignore the major contribution of unsafe abortions and lack of family planning to the mortality and morbidity around this issue,” he said in an interview. “It’s something that should be addressed and discussed.”

We heartily agree, and hope against hope that the Harper government will realize the error of its ways and support the approach recommended by the experts.