Wellness Within disappointed by Provincial government’s new strategic plan for health
Wellness Within is disappointed by the Provincial government’s Action for Health: A Strategic Plan for Nova Scotia, released last week, which fails to include sexual and reproductive health.
“Nova Scotia urgently needs increased access to reproductive care, and it is a significant and shameful omission from the new provincial health plan,” said Martha Paynter, Wellness Within Chair. “Reproductive health is foundational to wellbeing, and should be a foundational element of any progressive health plan given it affects the entire population throughout their lifetime. Reproductive health is fundamentally an issue of gender equity, and a plan that fails to address pregnancy and pregnancy prevention is quite simply discriminatory.”
Birth is the number one reason for hospitalization in Canada, ahead of heart attacks and heart failure. In 2021, COVID-19 ranked the seventh most common reason for hospitalization. Midwifery care results in fewer interventions, reduces system costs associated with surgical births, and improves health outcomes for parents and babies. Midwifery is fundamental to primary health care and a service to which all Nova Scotian families should have access. And yet, expanding access to midwifery goes unmentioned in the premier’s new plan.
Evidence shows that when people plan their pregnancies, they can better care for their families, complete their education, achieve employment, and are less likely to experience intimate partner violence and poverty. The cost of contraception is one of the most significant barriers to reproductive health equity in the province. Providing universal access to free contraception would result in significant cost savings and improvements in population health, with governments saving approximately $7 and $10 dollars for every dollar invested. The premier’s plan fails to address this potential return on investment.
One in three people with a uterus will have an abortion in their lifetime: abortion is a very common reproductive health service. Although abortion access has drastically increased in Nova Scotia since the introduction of the toll-free self-referral line (1-833-352-0719) and primary care provision of Mifegymiso (medication abortion), two serious issues persist: there is no access to surgical abortion on Cape Breton island, and no access to elective abortion beyond 16 weeks gestation anywhere in the province. These restrictions place significant burdens on patients to travel within and beyond the province for basic care. The new plan will not remedy this situation.
During the Speak Up for Healthcare Tour facilitated by the Provincial government, we called for investment in reproductive health. Despite this, reproductive health continues to lack appropriate attention and funding. We call on the Province to amend their plan to invest in reproductive health. 1) Hire more midwives to increase capacity for primary care in pregnancy. 2) Universalize access to free contraception. 3) Support improved access to surgical abortion.
Wellness Within is a volunteer-based registered non-profit organization that serves women, transgender and nonbinary people who have experienced criminalization and are pregnant or have young children in Nova Scotia, part of the unceded and unsurrendered ancestral territory of the Mi'kmaq people. Wellness Within supports people through the full spectrum of reproductive health experience; facilitates workshops and education sessions; develops resource materials; and advocates for reproductive justice issues.
Media contact: Martha Paynter, Chair of WW, 9022927082, martha.paynter@gmail.com