Birth control coverage absent from provincial budget, leaving election promise unfulfilled

Free contraception remains an unfulfilled election promise for Premier Susan Holt’s Liberals.

The provincial budget, released last week, doesn’t include any money towards universal birth control coverage.

A program of free contraception “is the number one priority for family planning providers in this province,” said Martha Paynter, spokesperson for the New Brunswick Abortion Care Network.

“The greatest risk factor in unplanned pregnancy is lack of access to reliable contraception,” the group said in a statement.

“Unplanned pregnancy is associated with unmet educational goals, child poverty, domestic violence, and increased risk of pregnancy complications and lifelong disability.”

By 2022, New Brunswick’s teen pregnancy rate was almost double the national average, according to Statistics Canada.

The provincial Liberal Party campaigned on a pledge to “make contraception free” in 2024, and repeated that promise in the throne speech when Holt came to power later that year.

However, there was no money for the initiative in the latest provincial budget, which earmarked $4.8 billion dollars for the Department of Health.

The Minister of Health has suggested that he can’t follow through with free contraception without striking a deal with Ottawa.

Speaking to the NB Media Co-op, Paynter rejected that assessment.

“Regardless of the federal partnership, this is good fiscal policy for the province,” she said.

Free contraceptives would ultimately save taxpayer money — at a time when New Brunswick faces record-setting deficit of $1.39 billion — according to Paynter.

She pointed to economic modelling from B.C. indicating that after four years, birth control coverage in that province will reduce government spending by $5 per person annually.

That kind of calculation takes into account direct costs to the health care system, she said, along with indirect costs such as lost employment opportunities.

Unwanted pregnancies also come with profound social costs.

“Most egregiously, it traps you in violent relationships, which have inordinate costs in terms of the direct health harms of abuse,” Paynter said.

The provincial government declared gender-based violence an epidemic last year.

The New Brunswick Abortion Care Network noted that birth control is “essential healthcare used to manage chronic conditions such as endometriosis, menstrual bleeding, and hormonal disorders, among others.”

Holt government looks to Ottawa 

A disclosure statement filed by the provincial Liberals in 2024 stated that its free birth control promise would “not have financial implications for the Province” because it would be covered by federal pharmacare.

“Opting into the federal pharmacare program will result in coverage of contraception for New Brunswickers,” the document states.

However, there’s been no apparent progress on striking a deal with the feds since then.

The federal Pharmacare Act was billed as a first step towards universal drug coverage in Canada, starting with diabetes medication and birth control.

On Monday, Minister of Health John Dornan issued a statement indicating that he’s seeking a deal with Ottawa that will cover contraceptives — but not diabetes medication.

“New Brunswick maintains its interest in further discussing national pharmacare with our federal partners,” he said.

“We are particularly interested in securing an agreement with federal funding to help fulfill our commitment for free contraceptives, a request we have reiterated to the federal government.”

He added: “Our priority remains achieving a national pharmacare approach that meets the needs of our province and builds upon the strengths of the system we already have in place.”

‘Incredibly short-sighted’

In an interview, Green Party Leader David Coon called the provincial Liberals “incredibly short-sighted” for failing to secure a pharmacare deal with the feds.

The Holt government didn’t strike a deal with Ottawa because it would have required the province to partially cover diabetes treatments, he said.

“In a province where you’ve got high levels of poverty, particularly among young people, and you’ve got high levels of teenage pregnancy, this doesn’t make any sense,” he said.

Progressive Conservative MLA Tammy Scott-Wallace, opposition critic for women’s equality, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.

In September, Dornan told public health advocates that the health insurance industry may respond to universal pharmacare in New Brunswick by eliminating private coverage for Ozempic, as reported at the time by the NB Media Co-op.

Dornan said that could leave the province with a multi-million dollar gap in coverage, since Ottawa doesn’t cover the medication, according to people who were present at the meeting. Ozempic is commonly used to help lower blood sugar levels for people with Type-2 diabetes.

However, the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association — a major industry lobbying group — has stated that its members intend to continue private coverage for GLP-1 drugs, including Ozempic, “in all provinces and territories, including those with federal pharmacare.”

The pharmacare bill was tabled by Justin Trudeau’s Liberals as part of a confidence-and-supply agreement with the NDP. Manitoba, B.C., P.E.I. and Yukon signed pharmacare agreements with the Trudeau government, but the future of the program now appears uncertain.

Prime Minister Mark Carney promised to provide “dental care and pharmacare for everyone who needs it” ahead of the federal election that brought him to power. However, the latest federal budget didn’t include any new funding for the program.

David Gordon Koch is a journalist with the NB Media Co-op based in Moncton. This reporting has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada, via the Local Journalism Initiative.

Editor’s Note: NB Media Co-op coordinating editor Tracy Glynn is the national director of projects and operations of the Canadian Health Coalition, which campaigns for universal pharmacare.