Reproductive health advocates praise Liberal pledges but caution more details needed

Liberal Party pledges to make an access to abortion fund permanent, spend up to $20,000 for IVF treatment and invest in data collection on issues like menopause are welcomed initiatives, some women's health advocates say.

But they also cautioned that the party needs to release more details, particularly on how such initiatives would be funded. While the IVF program did lay out an actual dollar amount, the party's platform does not detail how much it would invest in other reproductive health programs.

"I'm excited about visible commitments to women's reproductive health, women's safety, gender," said Frédérique Chabot, executive director of Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights, an organization that advocates for sexual and reproductive health issues in Canada and globally.

"There's a lot of measures that will benefit people. And we'll see what it actually looks like if they form government."

Chabot, however, also acknowledged there still haven't been a lot of details about what kind of investments would be made.

"Is this kind of a bit of lip service?" she said. "We're going to keep an eye on the fact that the words may be there, but there's not a lot of details yet."

Over the weekend, the Liberal Party released its election platform which contained pledges to "protect women's rights and prosperity." Those included:

• A pledge to make permanent the Sexual and Reproductive Health Fund Program, which supports community-based organizations that improve access to abortion for underserved communities.
• A promise to establish a new in vitro fertilization (IVF) program that provides up to $20,000 for a single standard cycle of IVF treatment.
• A pledge to invest in research into postpartum maternal health.
• A pledge to to invest in increased collection of data, particularly in understudied areas of menopause, endometriosis, maternal mortality and morbidity, stillbirth and perinatal health.

Chabot said she was pleased to hear that a Liberal government would make permanent the Sexual and Reproductive Health Fund, which to date has received temporary funding. This would permit the building of real, true infrastructure in Health Canada to have sexual and reproductive health care be an area of priority, she said.

"That's good news. It doesn't say any kind of amount or to what degree it would be funded, how they would fund it. So, you know, we'll keep our eyes open," she said.

Chabot said her organization is also excited about the pledge to invest in increased data collection, which she hopes includes the continued funding of the first-ever Canadian Sexual and Reproductive Health Survey, which collected data from October 2024 until February.

She said other countries are already conducting similar studies to gather information about residents' health status around pregnancy, menopause, fertility and sexual and reproductive health.

The last government funded the survey, but there was concern over whether it would continue, Chabot said.

Without this data, Canada has been impeded in its ability to make good policy decisions about those issues, Chabot said.

Dr. Gayle Robinson a professor of psychiatry and obstetrics/gynecology at the University of Toronto, said she welcomed the Liberal Party's focus on these programs but also said she's taking a wait-and-see approach to funding.

WATCH | B.C. women face serious challenges accessing menopause care, study finds:

A study from the Women's Health Research Institute found that women in the province had to pay almost $900 out of pocket to access extended health care due to menopause symptoms. The CBC's Belle Puri spoke to a lead author on the study, as well as an advocate for menopause awareness, about what can be done to destigmatize talking about menopause.

"The trouble with these kinds of statements is I don't expect you're going to get details of everything that they want to do. I think what's important is to say this is an important area of research," she said.

"It's been difficult to get research funding for any of these kinds of things. I think the question is, do they actually put their money where their mouth is and have money available."

But Robinson was critical that the party made no mention of re-establishing the Women and Gender Equality Canada (WAGE) cabinet position. That was eliminated when Liberal Leader Mark Carney was sworn in as prime minister, along with his slimmed-down cabinet. That department now reports to the minister of Canadian culture and identity.

That move to eliminate the WAGE cabinet position was condemned by a number of women's health advocates, including Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights.

Robinson said if Carney becomes prime minister and doesn't revive that post, it would be a "disaster for all women's health issues." She said that the WAGE cabinet position is a statement by the government that it is committed to these initiatives.

"There has to be somebody who's really setting the agenda and setting the priorities and making sure that these things happen," she said.

"If this potential government really believes in all of these things, then they need somebody to be in charge of that."