B.C.’s free contraception plan renews push for Ottawa, other provinces to follow suit

Obstetricians and reproductive rights advocates say other countries, including the United Kingdom, already provide free contraception as part of their health-care plans.

Proponents of British Columbia’s move to provide free prescription contraception say the policy could spur other provinces to follow suit but a national plan would best serve people’s reproductive needs and slash health-care costs overall.

Obstetricians and reproductive rights advocates say other countries, including the United Kingdom, already provide free contraception as part of their health-care plans.

One of those advocates is Grade 11 student Sophie Choong, who joined a campaign launched by a group called AccessBC to push the government to keep an election promise to provide free contraception.

She helped put up billboards on a highway in Victoria, home of the B.C. legislature, and was also involved in placing ads on transit in January.

On Tuesday, Finance Minister Katrine Conroy announced in her budget speech that free prescription contraception would be available as of April 1 at a cost of $119 million over three years. It will cover options including oral hormone pills, contraceptive injections, copper and intrauterine devices and subdermal implants, along with so-called Plan B, also known as the morning-after pill.

Choong called that a “beacon of hope” for the rest of the country.

“There are many young people who do need access to contraception and that’s just a reality,” she said. “The other big problem is that many people don’t have access to contraception because they don’t get parental approval (to help pay) for it.”

Teale Phelps Bondaroff, a spokesman for AccessBC, said the group has been pushing for free contraception in B.C. for six years and those fronting campaigns elsewhere in Canada, including Ontario, Manitoba, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, see B.C.’s decision as a catalyst for potential change in their jurisdictions.