At the Saving Every Woman, Every Child summit held in Toronto, Canada last month, Dr. Jim Yong Kim, president of the World Bank Group asserted, “We stand today on a critical threshold for global health and development. While we can absolutely point to progress, we know that it has been uneven. Too many women and children are still dying because they lack access to quality health care…” This view was echoed by the summit’s high profile delegates which included United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, World Health Organization President Dr. Margaret Chan, His Highness the Aga Khan, and Melinda Gates. The event’s host, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, announced a $3.5 billion commitment by the Canadian government to support maternal and child health initiatives globally from 2015-2020, building off the previous $2.8 billion commitment announced at the Muskoka G8 summit in 2010. The funds will be primarily directed towards immunization and nutrition initiatives, as well as building effective vital statistics and civil registries. But missing from the summit were discussions on reproductive health and family planning, including abortion services, a fact that critics are quick to attribute to the current Canadian Government’s conservative leanings. This is particularly relevant given that in the summit’s co-host country of Tanzania, the second leading cause of maternal death is unsafe abortions.

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