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Those barriers can include pressure or threats from partners or families, as well as systemic issues facing women from marginalized and vulnerable communities, such as those with disabilities, immigrants and refugees, sex workers, people from the LGBTQ community and those living with HIV or AIDS, but also young women and mothers in general.

Status of Women Canada confirmed that Planned Parenthood Ottawa — not a clinic, but a pro-choice charitable organization that provides counselling, referrals and other services related to sexual and reproductive health — applied for the funding in fiscal 2015-16, and that the project would have been eligible even within the narrower criteria established by the previous Conservative government.

It is not difficult to imagine, though, why the government might be highlighting the project at this particular moment in time.

Monsef did not mention U.S. President Donald Trump by name, but the spectre of his administration was front and centre as she stressed the importance of protecting reproductive rights both in Canada and in other countries.

“We know all the research out there, all the promising practices out there, fundamentally the values that we hold onto in this country, we know that this is important to address and Canada’s support to sexual and reproductive health programs and protecting the rights of women remains the same,” Monsef said.

A 2013 report on the first phase of the project — a joint effort between Planned Parenthood Ottawa and other community organizations — pointed out how difficult it was to separate conversations about reproductive rights from the greater political and cultural context.