UFV students are no strangers to the wide selection of safe sex options in free vending machines around campus or available at the PRLC lounge — dental dams, lube, and condoms galore. It’s not uncommon to see free condoms or menstrual products being handed out at Canadian universities, and yet some forget that these are resources still being fought for in many countries and institutions. While condoms are a more popular option to hand out en masse, another form of birth control is often overlooked in the dialogue of free resources: universal access to contraceptives.
Starting 2022, France will begin offering free birth control to all women until age 25, a move which will bring it in line with Britain, Spain, and several other European countries. This begs the question: should Canada be next? Arguably, yes.
Why give access to contraceptives, you might ask? The easy answer is that access to contraceptives is a universal human right, backed by the UN.
Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, executive director of the UN Population Fund explained, “Not only does the ability for a couple to choose when and how many children to have help lift nations out of poverty, but it is also one of the most effective means of empowering women.”
Making contraceptives free increases accessibility to family planning, giving people the choice to decide when and if they have children, regardless of their lifestyle or financial situation. But wouldn’t that be an economic strain and a burden on taxpayers? As Dr. Osotimehin alluded to, giving everyone access to birth control can also be seen as a way to increase productivity and boost the economy by increasing the labor-force participation — less babies or abortions means more time that can be spent churning the capitalist machine and generating more income tax dollars. In other words, a small investment by countries into free contraception could equal a larger output of labor and return on investment.
Okay, so maybe it’s a smart move investment wise, but what about ethically? Afterall, the Roman Catholic Church has long been opposed to “artificial” means of birth control, since it’s seen as interfering with God’s will. Unfortunately for this idea, it’s sinking into public irrelevance. The National Catholic Reporter wrote that a “2016 Pew Research Center study reported that 89 per cent of American Catholics believe that contraception is either morally acceptable or not a moral issue at all.” It’s also arguable that oral contraceptives are “artificial,” as they use natural hormones the body already produces to create the desired effect of non-permanently lowered fertility. Not to mention that according to a Washington University School of Medicine study, abortion rates can be reduced by up to 78 per cent the national average by giving people access to birth control, another hot debate amongst religious circles. Not everyone will follow a religion like Catholicism, and therefore it doesn’t make sense to push non-believers to adopt religious concepts like not using oral contraceptives — especially when most Catholics don’t seem to believe in it themselves.
What about the fact that giving away birth control for free could promote promiscuous or risky sexual behavior? The Washington University School of Medicine studied just that by giving women aged 14-45 no-cost contraception and tracking their sexual partners and intercourse frequency for a year. The results? 84 per cent of participants had no change or a decrease in the number of partners, and the frequency of intercourse only slightly increased.
But shouldn’t sex have consequences if you’re being frivolous? It’s easy to forget that family planning isn’t just an issue that affects carefree 20-something year olds who are being “promiscuous.” In 2013, nearly 25 per cent of immigrant women in Canada said they encountered issues in getting birth control because of language barriers, lack of private insurance, and trouble navigating the system. Birth control users are married parents who don’t want to expand their family, individuals who can’t afford to have children, youths who don’t understand the consequences of their actions, people who don’t have sex but use it to treat health conditions, students that can’t afford to drop out of school for an unplanned pregnancy, and more. To expect everyone to remain abstinent or otherwise face harsh and life-altering consequences is unrealistic — we have modern medicine that can help us with this issue, so why not make it freely available?
Canada should highly consider making birth control free for all its citizens. This concept is being fought for by provincial, national, and governmental groups like AccessBC, the B.C. NDP party, and the Canadian Paediatric Society. While condoms can be easily found in stores and at a low cost, birth control can carry a hefty weight in the lifetime of a user — a cost that should be absorbed by governments if it’s a universal human right rather than a luxury for only those who can afford it.
Image: Danyka Van Santen/The Cascade
Chandy is a biology major/chemistry minor who's been a staff writer, Arts editor, and Managing Editor at The Cascade. She began writing in elementary school when she produced Tamagotchi fanfiction to show her peers at school -- she now lives in fear that this may have been her creative peak.
