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U.S. President Barack Obama (L), France's President Nicolas Sarkozy and Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper pose at the G8 Summit at the Deerhurst Resort in Huntsville.CHRIS WATTIE

Whatever happened to the abortion fight?

For months, primed by the opposition and the media, Canadians have been prepped to expect a real dust-up at the G8 summit over the funding of abortion.

Yet, perusing the twenty or so Canadian, British, French and US papers I read in preparing my daily press review, I find not a single reference to any conflict or even disagreement on the issue.

Not even from the mouth of President Barack Obama.

Yet, who can forget the anxiety back in March during the visit of Hillary Clinton, when she supposedly remonstrated Canada not only about the "a" word but also on leaving our troops in Afghanistan? This on the heels of President Obama having just agreed to an amendment to his signature health legislation that prevents federal dollars funding abortions-in the United States.

Is the absence of an abortion shoot-out at the G8 just another example of the fake lake controversy syndrome-summed up this way on his blog by Andrew Coyne : "The media got rolled on this one, the opposition ran away with it, and we all ought to be ashamed of ourselves."

In part.

But I think there's an additional factor at play on this issue: In all the papers I read today, I could find only one journalist--Le Devoir's Helene Buzzetti - who reports on the response of foreign delegates when asked by Canadian journalists about their position on the issue:

"The various G8 countries did not seem to be obsessed with maternal health, in general, and with the question of abortion, in particular. For example, when asked, the Japanese delegates could not say whether they would agree to have their moneys used to finance abortion abroad."

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