Quebec aims to boost access to abortion pills, clinics

MONTREAL — Quebec wants to improve access to abortion services as part of a new plan to counter what the government describes as an erosion of women’s rights around the world.

Martine Biron, Quebec’s minister for the status of women, described the government’s $7.5-million plan, published Monday morning, as a bulwark against threats to reproductive rights from south of the border. She said one-third of Canadian women will have an abortion during their lifetime.

“What I want to say to the women of Quebec is that I will protect them,” she told reporters during a news conference in Montreal. “Our government is ready to protect the rights of women.”

Biron said there is an overwhelming consensus on abortion in Quebec, with 90 per cent of Quebecers supporting a woman’s right to choose. But the 2022 United States Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade has mobilized anti-choice groups in Quebec and the rest of Canada, according to the government’s 19-page action plan.

“The rights of women are always fragile,” Biron said. “They must be constantly vigilant.”

Her plan focuses on improving abortion services outside Montreal, where she said Quebecers sometimes wait up to five weeks before being able to terminate an unwanted pregnancy.

The government wants to increase access to abortion pills, in part by creating a telehealth service to speed up the process, especially for people who live far from abortion clinics. Biron said she wants the service to be up and running by 2027.

According to the action plan, medical abortions — when medication is used to end a pregnancy — accounted for 17 per cent of pregnancy terminations in Quebec in 2022, compared with 32 per cent in Ontario, 53 per cent in the United States and 72 per cent in France.

That’s in part because of past restrictions around the use of abortion pills in Quebec, which have been available since 2017. Previously, only doctors trained to perform surgical abortions were allowed to prescribe abortion medication, and women were required to have an ultrasound before receiving a prescription.

Those restrictions were lifted in 2022, and nurse practitioners and midwives can now prescribe abortion pills. But Louise Langevin, a law professor at Université Laval in Quebec City and an expert in reproductive rights, said many Quebecers are still not familiar with medical abortions.

The Quebec government is also planning to open new abortion clinics, including in Quebec City, Biron said. Jess Legault, general coordinator of a Quebec family planning federation, said there is only one clinic currently operating in the capital region, and she’s pleased with the government’s plan.

“That is a boon for the women of the area, who sometimes have to wait up to between five and eight weeks for an abortion in the region, which is completely unacceptable,” Legault said.

The action plan also contains measures to fight disinformation about abortions. Legault said anti-abortion groups have been emboldened since Roe v. Wade was overturned two years ago, pointing to the province’s first-ever March for Life, an anti-abortion rally, which was held in Quebec City last June.

But Langevin said she thinks anti-abortion activists will have a hard time gaining traction in Quebec. “They can get excited, get angry, do what they want, but they have little input,” she said.

Both Legault and Langevin said they were disappointed the government hasn’t opted to make contraceptives free as part of the new plan. Asked about the omission on Monday, Biron suggested the government can’t act while talks are ongoing with the federal government about its recently passed pharmacare legislation, which includes universal access to contraception. Quebec has said it will opt out of the national plan.

However, Langevin pointed out that British Columbia made contraceptives free in April 2023. “It’s a political choice,” she said.

Last year, Biron made waves when she announced she wanted to enshrine a woman’s right to choose in law. Women’s groups and legal experts were quick to oppose the idea, and Biron eventually backtracked, promising instead to focus on abortion access.

Legault said there are currently no legal restrictions on the right to an abortion in Canada, and governments should leave well enough alone. “Even a pro-choice law can be amended to include limits on the number of weeks or any other kind of reason,” she said.

“A gesture like the one that Madame Biron had proposed last year would have been potentially dangerous, and could have been weaponized down the road.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 18, 2024.

Maura Forrest, The Canadian Press