Quebec launching $7.5M action plan to boost access to abortion pills, contraception

The Legault government is launching a $7.5 million action plan that it says reaffirms that Quebec women have the right to abortion by increasing access to abortion pills.

Martine Biron, the Quebec minister responsible for the status of women, made the announcement Monday. The goal is to have it implemented by 2027.

The funding will also help finance existing sexual and reproductive health services for women.

Quebec’s $7.5-million plan also contains measures to fight disinformation and improve access to contraception.

“A woman’s decision to carry her pregnancy to term or not is entirely up to her,” said Biron in a news release. “In Quebec, abortion is recognized as a safe health care that must be accessible to women who make this choice, regardless of the region where they live. Our health and social services network is united behind Quebec women so that they can be supported and accompanied without judgment and with humanity.”

In 2023, the government consulted with women’s groups, health professionals, professional orders and experts on the subject. Biron says Quebecers living in regions outside Montreal sometimes wait up to five weeks before receiving an abortion, adding that better access to abortion medications could help reduce delays.

#WATCH: The Legault government is launching a $7.5 million action plan that it says reaffirms that Quebec women have the right to abortion by increasing access to abortion pills.

READ: https://t.co/exNTUjvVfc pic.twitter.com/4celD6HpmU

— CityNews Montreal (@CityNewsMTL) November 18, 2024

“That we have a government that has come down with the first plan for abortion access just two weeks after the election of Donald Trump, to me, that is a very decisive and momentous event,” said Jess Legault, general co-ordinator, Fédération du Québec pour le planning des naissances (FQPN). “We’re not always on the same side, but today is a good day.”

Biron says they’re adding a second abortion access point in Quebec City.

“Quebec City only has one access point for the whole region of the Chaudière-Appalaches and right across the river, in Lévis, is the only access point for Chaudière-Appalaches, so that to me has indicated over the last few years a really important delays in terms of access,” Legault said.

The government says abortion pills accounted for 17 per cent of pregnancy terminations in Quebec in 2022, compared to 32 per cent in Ontario, 53 per cent in the United States and 72 per cent in France.

“The consultation work I began in 2023 shows that there is still work to be done in this area,” Biron said. “With this government action plan, Quebec is taking concrete action to reaffirm this fundamental right for Quebec women. By acting on access to abortion, we are building a fairer society, where women can choose freely.”

The action plan contains some 30 measures deployed according to four general objectives:

• Inform and raise awareness about freedom of choice and fight disinformation;
• To improve access to abortion services for women seeking abortion services throughout the country;
• Facilitate access to reliable and truthful contraceptive information and services;
• Research, monitoring and consultations.

The plan says that the 2022 United States Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade has mobilized anti-choice groups in Quebec and the rest of Canada.

“This plan is to protect the rights of women, because in Quebec, women are worried about their rights,” said Biron.

Biron says Quebec is steering clear of legislating on abortion.

“We don’t need a law — a law could be turned against us by anti-choice legislation,” Legault said. “So we really wanted a better access and the steps for better access are really included in the plan today.”

“Quebec’s health legislation already provides for abortion as a regulated health service, that’s part of the transition from the Morgentaler decision in 1988, which is what decriminalized abortion in Canada, through to the recognition in Quebec the fetus is not recognized as a human being from a legal perspective in the Quebec Charter and in the Civil Code. And in 2008, abortion became fully accessible as a health service in Quebec,” says Pearl Eliadis, Associate Professor at the Max Bell School of Public Policy at a McGill University, as well as a human rights lawyer.

Biron says one out of three women in Canada will have an abortion.

“My role is to protect the rights of women in Quebec to choose,” she said.

A petition tabled at the National Assembly with nearly 85,000 signatures calls for free contraception. Biron says they are open to this and will discuss with Ottawa.

“I really have faith that the government will come through for us because we’re not going to be the last province in Canada to get free contraception,” Legault said.

–With files from The Canadian Press