Trudeau made headlines with free birth control. Why didn’t Canada follow through?

Nearly a year after a historic law promised free contraception, most provinces still haven’t signed on

Olivia Bowden in Toronto
Wed 24 Sep 2025

It was touted as a historic move that would change lives: in October 2024, Canada passed new legislation making all birth control free.

Justin Trudeau, then prime minister, called the bill’s passing “real progress”. The leftwing New Democratic party took credit, saying they had convinced Trudeau’s governing Liberals to move ahead with it. The bill didn’t just cover birth control: it made diabetes medication free, too, and ushered in a legal framework to possibly cover all prescription medication in the future: a national pharmacare plan.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/24/canada-free-birth-control-law

USA – Inside the legal fight over the telehealth clinics that help women defy abortion bans

Every month, thousands of women evade abortion bans in their home states by turning to telehealth clinics willing to send them pregnancy-ending drugs through the mail

By MICHAEL HILL and SUSAN HAIGH, Associated Press
June 12, 2025

Every month, thousands of women thwart abortion bans in their home states by turning to telehealth clinics willing to prescribe pregnancy-ending drugs online and ship them anywhere in the country.

Whether this is legal, though, is a matter of debate. Two legal cases involving a New York doctor could wind up testing the shield laws some states have passed to protect telehealth providers who ship abortion pills nationwide.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/inside-legal-fight-telehealth-clinics-women-defy-abortion-122763768

USA – Women in states with bans are getting abortions at similar rates as under Roe, report says

A new report finds that women living in states with abortion bans obtained the procedure in the second half of 2023 at about the same rate as before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade

By GEOFF MULVIHILL Associated Press
October 22, 2024

Women living in states with abortion bans obtained the procedure in the second half of 2023 at about the same rate as before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, according to a report released Tuesday.

Women did so by traveling out of state or by having prescription abortion pills mailed to them, according to the #WeCount report from the Society of Family Planning, which advocates for abortion access. They increasingly used telehealth, the report found, as medical providers in states with laws intended to protection them from prosecution in other states used online appointments to prescribe abortion pills.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/women-states-bans-abortions-similar-rates-roe-report-115020954

22.10.2024

News

#WeCount

abortion pill prescriptions

Angel Foster

Guttmacher Institute

Massachusetts Abortion Access Project

Society of Family Planning

USA – Inside a medical practice sending abortion pills to states where they’re banned

August 7, 2024
Elissa Nadworny

The packages, no bigger than a hardcover book, line the walls of the nondescript office near Boston. It's not an Etsy retailer or a Poshmark seller or, as the nearby post office workers believe, a thriving jewelry business.

These boxes contain abortion pills.

"Welcome to modern abortion care," says Angel Foster, as she holds up a box for mailing. Foster, who has an M.D. degree, leads operations at what's known as the MAP, a Massachusetts telehealth provider sending pills to people who live in states that ban or restrict abortion.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/2024/08/06/nx-s1-5037750/abortion-pills-bans-telehealth-mail-mifepristone-misoprostol

USA – Red state abortion bans headed for clash with blue state shield laws

BY NATHANIEL WEIXEL
05/20/24

A clash is looming between anti-abortion red states and the blue state telemedicine shield laws trying to preserve abortion access.

More than a dozen states have laws shielding medical providers and others from out-of-state investigations and prosecutions regarding abortions and gender affirming care. But six states — Colorado, Massachusetts, New York, California, Vermont and Washington — have gone even further.

Continued: https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/4671299-abortion-bans-clash-shield-laws/

The pandemic sparked the rise of tele-abortion. Is it here to stay?

After 20 years in the U.S., medication abortion is finally widely accessible through telehealth. But a looming Supreme Court ruling could change all that.

BY RUTH READER
10.02.2020

In April of this year, when some of Minnesota’s already few abortion clinics started to close because of the pandemic, a new organization popped up with a novel idea: It would bring abortion services to Minnesotans using a mobile clinic. Called Just The Pill, its goal was to connect the state’s most rural corners with medication abortion care, a two-pill regimen that can end a pregnancy.

In the past, it’s been hard for sexual health groups to get medication abortion to people in remote areas. The Food and Drug Administration restricts one of the medications, mifepristone, in several ways. Patients must take the pill at a clinic, for example. On top of that, states have their own rules that can further encumber access. However, the medical data overwhelmingly shows the abortion pill is safe, even to take at home alone. Health experts say politics—not data—are informing these rules.

Continued: https://www.fastcompany.com/90550536/telehealth-abortion-pill-supreme-court-ruling

USA – Medical Abortions Have Changed Abortion Access — And They’re Available on the Internet

Medical Abortions Have Changed Abortion Access — And They’re Available on the Internet

April 23, 2019
by Catherine Trautwein

When Tami, a mother of three in her early 30s, found out she was pregnant, she began researching her options for an abortion. She discovered that there were only three remaining clinics in Louisiana, and the closest was hours from her home. And under state laws, Tami would need to make multiple trips: she would have to first receive an ultrasound and undergo counseling, then wait 24 hours before the actual procedure.

“I know what I want,” she said. “But the laws in the state make it so hard.” Instead, she turned to the internet.

Continued: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/self-managed-induced-medication-abortion/