NDP expands free birth-control program

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This article was published 21/03/2025 (209 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEG — Manitobans will soon be able to secure the morning-after pill at no charge as the NDP expands its reproductive health-care coverage.

The province’s latest budget touts initiatives to improve women’s health, including picking up the tab for Plan B, starting April 1. A prescription won’t be necessary.

“On this side of the border, on this side of the house: we believe in a woman’s right to choose,” Finance Minister Adrien Sala said in his official speech unveiling Budget 2025.

Sala’s afternoon address in the house endorsed safe access to abortion and “transformative health care for women in menopause and perimenopause.”

His 12-page speech is believed to be the first to include the terms menopause and perimenopause; budget speeches dating back to 1996 and searchable at the legislative building’s library did not include the words.

Against the backdrop of U.S. states restricting and banning abortion, it is “perhaps more important than ever” to emphasize Manitoba’s commitment to women’s health, the finance minister said.

Budget 2025 tops up the NDP’s free birth control program, which launched on Oct. 1, by $7 million for a total of $12.5 million in 2025-26. Since the program’s launch, roughly 32,000 residents have accessed it, the budget said.

PC health critic Kathleen Cook noted Plan B is already on Manitoba’s pharmacare formulary and many private insurance plans provide coverage for it.

“They’re just including emergency contraception in their existing birth control plan — they probably should’ve done that back when they first rolled it out,” Cook said.

The budget indicates that birth control pills previously cost up to $25 per month and the upfront cost of an intrauterine device is as high as $400. Among the latest additions to the program, the province is paying for copper IUDs.

B.C. became the first province to cover prescription contraception, ranging from oral pills to Plan B, for residents in April 2023.

Manitoba’s newest budget includes a $1.2-billion injection, a 14 per cent increase, in overall funding for the Department of Health, Seniors and Long-Term Care.

A total of $3.5 million has been earmarked to start designing and building a new emergency room and centre for mature women’s health at the Victoria General Hospital. Construction tenders are scheduled to be issued before the end of the calendar year.

The province is also setting aside $4.6 million to lower the screening age for breast cancer to 40 so there is enough equipment and staff to undertake the scans.

The budget’s chapter on health care also promises work is ongoing to improve screening rates for underserved populations, such as Black, Indigenous and people of colour.

The document also re-announced a federal-provincial partnership that will allocate $10 million in funding for the Women’s Health Clinic in downtown Winnipeg and another $10 million for hormone replacement therapy for seniors.

» Winnipeg Free Press