A PIONEER in women's health research has voiced concerns about the erosion of women's rights, not only at the hands of hardline religious groups but also policy makers in the West.
Canada-based Donna Stewart said the rise of Islamic extremism over the past decade had compounded issues of gender inequality in some countries, but she also pointed to the lobbying efforts of "rabid religious right-ists" in the West.
"In some of the Arabic countries it has become a lot more difficult for women, and in other countries it has become better," Professor Stewart said during her visit to Australia this week.
"I am concerned, though, about the erosion of women's rights in countries such as my own, that has a government that is very unsupportive of women's rights."
Canada's government has announced it will not fund international development initiatives that include helping women secure safe abortions, a move Prof Stewart said was "unconscionable" in "countries where millions of women die from illegal abortions".
The US states of Arizona and Tennessee have also recently enacted laws which restrict abortion coverage by insurance plans to be set up under the Obama health reforms, with more states expected to follow.
Prof Stewart said she had "no problem at all if people decide they don't want to personally have an abortion, but I don't think anybody should decide for another woman whether she can have one or not".
"The United States is full of rabid religious right-ists who will do anything to try and roll back some of that legislation (and) unfortunately these people exist in other countries as well, including Canada and presumably Australia," she said.
"Women do have to be vigilant, and fortunately the weight of public opinion in most countries is on the side of freedom of choice."
Prof Stewart was appointed in 1995 as the University of Toronto's Chair in Women's Health - the first such academic position in the world - and she is immediate past president of the International Association for Women's Mental Health.
She also now head of a Middle East-based project which is seeking to create a comprehensive picture of women's health in Saudi Arabia.
Prof Stewart was a keynote speaker at the Australian Women's Health Conference in Hobart and spoke to AAP today.
"Women should be proud of what they have accomplished in Australia," she said.
"Certainly when I was a young woman growing up, Australia was seen as a very macho culture and it wasn't very egalitarian, but I think that has changed.
"Australian men have a lot to be proud of as well."
