Media articles about reproductive rights
Facebook is blocking news links in Canada, therefore we are compiling those articles here. Most recent articles are on top.
Articles de presse sur les droits reproductifs – Facebook bloque les liens vers les actualités au Canada, c’est pourquoi nous compilons ces articles ici. Les articles les plus récents sont en haut.
Alberta government’s decision to not offer free birth control shortsighted, advocate says
By Tomasia DaSilva, Global News
November 28, 2023
A women’s health and reproductive rights advocate is denouncing a decision by the Alberta government to vote down a motion brought forward by the provincial NDP to offer free, prescription contraceptives.
The Opposition NDP proposed the idea Monday in the Alberta legislature, but the governing UCP said it wasn’t necessary. “Alberta Health supports a variety of initiatives and programs that address matters related to women’s health including coverage for many contraceptive drug and health products,” Arts, Culture and Status of Women Minister Tanya Fir said in question period.
Continued: https://globalnews.ca/news/10122727/alberta-free-birth-control-vote-reaction/
NDP proposes plan to launch free contraception program for Ontario residents
The cost for contraception in Ontario can be about $400
Arfa Rana · CBC News
Nov 27, 2023
For some Ontario women over 25 years old, getting contraception is unaffordable.
OHIP covers birth control for women under 25 years old as long as they aren’t covered by a private plan, while women above the age range have to pay out-of-pocket.
The cost for a hormonal IUD, which lasts for five years, can cost more than $400.
Continued: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/ndp-proposes-plan-to-launch-free-contraception-program-for-ontario-residents-1.7039628
My abortion was the only way I could look after myself and my young son
BREANNE MASSEY
GLOBE AND MAIL
Nov 27, 2023
As I sat alone in my bedroom with the lights off this Mother’s Day, my seven-year-old son watched cartoons in the next room, and I silently fought back my tears. I buried my face into the pillow, inhaling deeply and internally reciting the current events that made up my life for the last 11 weeks.
I found out that I was pregnant three weeks after my relationship had ended, and two weeks later, I was laid off from the community newspaper where I had been working for the past several months.
Could prescription contraception be free in Ontario? Ford government signals willingness
By Isaac Callan & Colin D’Mello, Global News
November 23, 2023
The Ford government has signalled it is open to supporting an opposition plan that would cover contraception for free under the province’s health insurance.
A group of Ontario NDP politicians unveiled a motion Thursday to expand OHIP coverage to include prescription contraception, such as birth control pills, IUDs and contraceptive injections.
Continued: https://globalnews.ca/news/10111333/ontario-free-contraception-ndp-motion/
Ontario NDP hopes Doug Ford government will support free birth control
Katherine DeClerq, CTV News
Nov. 23, 2023
The Ontario NDP is hoping the Doug Ford government will support a motion to provide coverage for birth control under OHIP.
The motion was first introduced(opens in a new tab) on International Women’s Day in March and hopes to cover oral hormone pills, contraceptive injections, copper and hormonal intrauterine devices (IUDs), subdermal implants, and Plan B.
Continued: https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/ndp-pushing-for-ontario-to-become-3rd-canadian-province-to-offer-free-birth-control-1.6657710
La contraception sur ordonnance sera gratuite au Manitoba
Radio-Canada
22 novembre 2023
Le gouvernement provincial a annoncé mardi que la contraception sera bientôt gratuite pour toute personne au Manitoba qui a une ordonnance médicale.
L’annonce a été faite lors du discours du Trône et cela concrétise une des promesses électorales du NPD.
Continue : https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/2029170/moyens-contraception-prescription-gratuit-manitoba
Women’s health advocates applaud Manitoba’s plan to subsidize prescription birth control
NDP promised universal coverage of select contraceptives during election campaign
CBC News
Nov 22, 2023
Birth control will soon become free for all Manitobans with a prescription, the province announced Tuesday. The announcement, made during Premier Wab Kinew’s Tuesday throne speech, makes good on an election promise the NDP campaigned on. The party previously pegged the cost to implement the universal coverage of select contraceptives at $11 million per year.
“Reproductive health care is a right. Our government will protect and affirm Manitobans’ right to access abortion services, protect abortion providers and make prescription birth control free,” said Tuesday’s speech, which was read by Lt.-Gov. Anita Neville in the legislature.
Continued: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/manitoba-throne-speech-birth-control-1.7035927
New abortion debate emerges in N.B. — on how best to improve access
2 groups diverge on interpretations of wait times, strategies
Jacques Poitras · CBC News
Nov 21, 2023
There’s a new debate emerging about abortion in New Brunswick — between groups who support access but have different approaches on how to pursue that goal.
Health-care professionals who provide the service in three hospitals in the province say media reporting on claims of delays in those facilities is “inaccurate.”
Continued: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/new-abortion-debate-emerges-new-brunswick-1.7034149
(Behind paywall)
Is there a wait for abortions in N.B.? Authority numbers questioned
In a letter, Clinic 554 director Adrian Edgar contends health officials are blind to patients that can’t reach abortion services provided
Adam Huras, Telegraph Journal
Nov 16, 2023
In a letter to Bruce Fitch and interim Horizon CEO Margaret Melanson, provided to Brunswick News, Clinic 554 director Adrian Edgar contends health officials are blind to patients that can’t reach the limited abortion services that are being provided.
Continued: https://tj.news/new-brunswick/is-there-a-wait-for-abortions-in-n-b-authority-numbers-questioned
Les régies de santé du N.-B. nient avoir de longs délais d’attente pour l’avortement
Radio-Canada
16 novembre 2023
Au Nouveau-Brunswick, les réseaux Vitalité et Horizon nient avoir des délais d’attente de plusieurs semaines pour avoir accès à un avortement chirurgical dans les trois hôpitaux de la province qui offrent ce service. Les deux régies de santé de la province assurent que des rendez-vous peuvent être programmés dans les huit à dix jours suivant la demande.
Continue : https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/2027381/acces-avortement-delai-denegation-horizon-vitalite
N.B. health authorities dispute claims of long abortion wait times
Hospitals say they can schedule appointments within 8-10 days, not 2-4 weeks
Jacques Poitras · CBC News
Nov 16, 2023
New Brunswick’s two health authorities are disputing the suggestion that patients seeking surgical abortions have to wait several weeks to have the procedure at the three hospitals offering the service.
Horizon Health and Vitalité Health were responding to the manager of Clinic 554 in Fredericton, who said a woman was recently referred to the clinic because she could not get an appointment in Moncton before the end of December.
Continued: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/nb-health-authorities-dispute-long-abortion-waits-1.7030419
N.B. minister defends funding private cataract surgery clinics, refusing abortion clinics
Minister says hospital abortions are accessible, but clinic manager says that’s not the case
Jacques Poitras · CBC News
Nov 15, 2023
The Higgs government says there’s no contradiction between its funding of cataract surgeries in private clinics outside hospitals and its refusal to pay for surgical abortions in clinics.
Health Minister Bruce Fitch told reporters that Medicare covers the cataract surgeries because there’s a long wait list for the procedure that the new private clinics are helping to reduce. “The big thing that we have to point to is the wait line and the wait time,” he said, calling cataract surgeries “one of the areas where we could move quickly.”
Continued: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/nb-health-cataract-clinics-abortion-limits-1.7029113
Un rapport fédéral recommande l’accès aux avortements dans les cliniques au N.-B.
Radio-Canada
15 novembre 2023
Une étude commandée par le fédéral sur l’accès à l’avortement chirurgical au Nouveau-Brunswick recommande que la province autorise les médecins à pratiquer la procédure dans des cliniques communautaires.
La mesure proposée dans l’étude servirait à éliminer les obstacles auxquels font face les personnes souhaitant cette procédure. Le rapport ne demande toutefois pas au gouvernement fédéral de forcer le Nouveau-Brunswick à agir.
Continue : https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/2026736/etude-rapport-avortements-clinique
Nathaniel Veltman trial: What the jury didn’t hear
Jane Sims
Nov 15, 2023
Murder was on Nathaniel Veltman’s mind long before he crashed his souped-up pickup truck into a London Muslim family in June 2021.
Muslims weren’t his target then. It was abortion doctors.
The idea came to him after he attended a home-schooling conference at age 13 at Redeemer University, a Christian school in Hamilton. His fundamentalist Christian upbringing had taught him that abortion was murder.
Continued: https://lfpress.com/news/local-news/nathaniel-veltman-trial-what-the-jury-didnt-hear
Allow surgical abortions in N.B. clinics, federal report says
Study says Ottawa lacks ‘straightforward’ authority to force province to improve access
Jacques Poitras · CBC News
Nov 14, 2023
A highly anticipated research study on surgical abortion access in New Brunswick recommends the province allow doctors to perform the procedure in community clinics as a way of eliminating barriers to the procedure.
But the report does not call on the federal government — which commissioned the study — to force the province to act, saying it’s not clear Ottawa has a legal leg to stand on.
Its lead author, former University of New Brunswick law professor Jula Hughes, says the data from hospital abortions and those at Fredericton’s Clinic 554 proves that “hospital access is just slower.”
Continued: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/federal-report-calls-on-nb-to-allow-abortions-in-clinics-1.7028034
Thousands in B.C. getting free contraception, providing ‘hope for reproductive justice’
Anna McMillan, CTV News
Nov. 8, 2023
Roughly 166,000 people in B.C. didn’t pay a dime for their prescription contraception between April 1 and Sept. 30. Health ministry data obtained by CTV News shows the majority of people using B.C.’s free prescription contraception program are in their 20s.
“Young women are getting a break on something that used to cost them and now it doesn’t,” said Health Minister Adrian Dix.
Continued: https://vancouverisland.ctvnews.ca/thousands-in-b-c-getting-free-contraception-providing-hope-for-reproductive-justice-1.6636385
Ces 40 députés fédéraux sont contre l’avortement
Article de Beatriz Rose
7 novembre 2023
Alors que la restriction potentielle du droit à l’avortement cause des vagues du côté de nos voisins américains, les Canadiens se repenchent aussi sur la question. Récemment, Justin Trudeau déclarait vouloir s’assurer que les droits des femmes soient toujours respectés, et ce, peu importe le gouvernement au pouvoir. Bien que l’avortement soit décriminalisé au Canada, le premier ministre estime que les mécanismes d’application de la loi doivent être renforcés. Il convient effectivement de rappeler que tous les députés du Parlement ne sont pas pro-choix. Voici les 40 députés fédéraux qui sont contre l’avortement.
Continue : https://www.msn.com/fr-ca/actualites/other/ces-40-d%C3%A9put%C3%A9s-f%C3%A9d%C3%A9raux-sont-contre-l-avortement/ss-AA1jwUY9
Hamilton councillors look to conceal ‘triggering’ anti-abortion flyers
City staff would look at requiring the flyers be put in envelopes with trigger warnings
Samantha Beattie · CBC News
Nov 05, 2023
In an effort to protect Hamilton residents from experiencing “severe harm” when they discover graphic images of aborted fetuses in their mailbox, councillors are calling for new city regulations.
Unsolicited anti-abortion flyers are routinely delivered to Hamilton homes for anybody to see, including children and people who have had an abortion or experienced pregnancy loss, said Coun. Maureen Wilson (Ward 1) at a planning committee meeting this week.
Continued: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/flyer-bylaw-1.7017716
B.C. community paper that refused to publish anti-abortion ad wins human rights case
Lisa Steacy, CTVNews
Nov. 3, 2023
The B.C. Human Rights Tribunal has dismissed a complaint that a community newspaper’s refusal to run anti-abortion ads amounted to discrimination based on religion.
The dispute began nearly five years ago after a Halloween-themed ad by the Nelson Right to Life Society that ran in the Nelson Star sparked an “immediate and overwhelming” backlash, tribunal member Devyn Cousineau’s ruling explains.
Continued: https://bc.ctvnews.ca/b-c-community-paper-that-refused-to-publish-anti-abortion-ad-wins-human-rights-case-1.6630367
