Pediatricians recommend free contraception for all young Canadians

The Canadian Paediatric Society wants all Canadians under the age of 25 to have free and confidential access to effective contraceptives. Birth control can be expensive for young people and, while some young people may be covered by their parents’ insurance plans, they may not want them to know they are sexually active.

Thousands of unwanted pregnancies every year

“Consequently, we know that many young people who are sexually active and not wanting to become pregnant are not using effective contraception,” says Dr. Margo Lane, adolescent medicine specialist and on the society’s adolescent health committee. “It ends up meaning that we have thousands of young women getting pregnant every year in Canada even though they are not wishing to become pregnant.”

Lack of contraception has implications for women and society

This has implications for the young woman’s life and for society as a whole. Lane says first, the women must decide whether to terminate the pregnancy and, if they go ahead and have the baby, they are less likely to finish school, less likely to get post-secondary education and that sets them up for less access to quality jobs and greater chances of having to rely on government assistance.

Health care is under the jurisdiction of the provinces and territories in Canada. The position paper from the Canadian Paediatric Society recommends measures to help governments achieve the goal of providing free and confidential access to effective contraception to all Canadians under 25. It also points out that in the long run, the cost of providing this is less than the overall cost of not doing so.

Dr. Margo Lane explains why pediatricians want free and confidential access to contraception for young Canadians.

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There are several methods of contraception. In June 2018, the Canadian Paediatric Society recommended that birth control advice to teens should focus on IUDs first..