B.C. NDP Health Minister Josie Osborne announced today that people who need an abortion will have one more option for access. Midwives will be able to prescribe Mifegymiso (the abortion pill).

The pill can be a more comfortable choice for people who want an abortion, done earlier in pregnancy and without having to go far from home.

While the B.C. NDP takes steps to expand reproductive healthcare, the B.C. Conservative leadership race is being influenced by forces that want to roll it back.

Yuri Fulmer and Kerry-Lynne Findlay won high endorsement marks from anti-choice group RightNow for their responses to a survey canvassing candidates’ abortion policies.

Another anti-choice group, Campaign Life Coalition, has said they are backing a “pro-life and pro-family” candidate and called on their readers to buy a party membership to influence the race. They won’t reveal the candidate’s identity publicly “for strategic reasons.”

Both Fulmer and Findlay said they would allow MLAs to put forward private members’ bills on abortion.

Josie Osborne, Health Minister:

“There is a lot a provincial government could do to limit access to abortions, just like we’ve seen in the United States, where anti-choice politicians chipped away at access for years. State governments made it harder and harder to get proper care, even when people had the right to an abortion. Now those forces are coming to Canada, and they’re quietly backing B.C. Conservative leadership candidates. British Columbians deserve to know where these candidates stand on this important change that increases access to healthcare.”