Yukon NDP pushes for free prescription birth control

Women's advocates say an NDP-led push for free birth control in the Yukon could remove barriers for family planning and ease burdens on the territory's health system.

On Monday, the Yukon NDP filed a notice of motion urging the Liberal government to fully subsidize prescription contraceptives like IUDs and birth control pills for all Yukoners.

That came a week after B.C. announced it would become the first province to cover prescription birth control costs for its residents.

In the Yukon, the government pays for contraceptives for some Yukoners through social assistance, the Children's Drug and Optical Program and the Yukon Sexual Health Clinic. But for Yukoners who aren't eligible for subsidies, advocates say high prices can dictate family planning.

Jasmine Marie works with pregnant women and new parents at the Victoria Faulkner Women's Centre in Whitehorse. She said clients have told her they've struggled to pay for more effective contraceptives.

"The ones that work better for them are more costly,"Marie said. "And they have to try different contraception."

IUDs in the Yukon, for instance, can have an upfront cost of $500 and contraceptive implants can cost up to $350, both lasting years before they need to be replaced. If those prices are too high, people can turn to alternatives that don't work as well for them, but cost less in the short term.

Those costs aren't always shared equally either.

Ashley Hope at the Yukon Status of Women Council said women and gender-diverse people often pay for birth control themselves. Removing financial barriers around family planning, she said, promotes gender equality.

"It enables women and gender-diverse people to actually more easily and readily make decisions about their bodies and health, including if or when they choose to get pregnant,"Hopesaid.

It's unclear how much it would cost the territory to provide prescription birth control to all residents B.C., with a population of over 5 million, will spend $119 million over the next three years but Yukon NDP MLA Emily Tredger believes it will save the government money in the long run.

"It's worth thinking about the costs of not providing free birth control,"she told CBC News.

Tredger said the cost of unplanned pregnancies and abortions burdens health care and social programs more than subsidized contraceptives would.

According to a 2022 report by the U.N.'ssexual and reproductive health agency, nearly half of all pregnancies worldwide are unintended.

The Yukon NDP made universal access to prescription contraceptives part of its 2021 election campaign platform, but Tredger said the recent announcement in B.C. led her to raise the issue again this week in the legislature.

'The reality is people are paying for it now'

Advocacy group AccessBC helped lead the campaign for free prescription contraceptives in that province. Co-Founder Teale Phelps Bondaroff said the change in B.C. was primarily a matter of gender equality and improved health care, but he agreed it would also be financially beneficial.

"Right now, you cover the cost of unplanned pregnancies through public health, whether that's funding abortions, whether that's funding delivery, whether that's funding addressing some of the complications that might result from unplanned pregnancies,"he said.

"So the reality is people are paying for it now."

Phelps Bondaroff noted a 2010 study from Vancouver-based Options for Sexual Health, which estimatedpublicly-funded contraception could save the B.C. government $95 million a year.

The B.C. government also said last week that, when prescription birth control becomes free in theprovincein April, a person spending $25 a month on oral contraception could save up to $10,000 over their lifetime.

In an exchange with Tredger in the Yukon legislature onMonday, Health and Social Services Minister Tracy-Anne McPhee said the government already subsidizesbirth control in some cases, and her department would watch how B.C.'s program rolled out.

In an email to CBC News, a spokesperson for Yukon's health and social services department said the government is looking at expanded access to birth control, but it will take time.

"The development of a new program will first require careful planning, research, and engagement with Yukoners and partners from across the health system,"the spokespersonsaid.