What does the story of mifepristone reveal about healthcare equity in Canada? This episode explores how one medication reshaped care, the barriers that persist, and what it reveals about equity in reproductive health.

Dr. Liz Darling is a professor and the assistant dean, midwifery at McMaster University, an adjunct scientist at ICES, and a registered midwife with graduate training in epidemiology and population health. Her research expertise includes midwifery services, novel care models, health equity, access to care, mixed methods, and administrative health data, and she has particular expertise in the midwifery data collected in Ontario’s perinatal registry (BORN-Ontario). Her CIHR-funded research program focuses on how the expansion of midwifery in Canada can help improve equitable access to sexual and reproductive healthcare for equity-deserving groups.

Dr. Laura Schummers is an epidemiologist and health policy researcher and Assistant Professor in the Collaboration for Outcomes Research and Evaluation in the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of British Columbia (UBC). She completed her doctorate in Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health in 2018 and a postdoctoral fellowship with the British Columbia Ministry of Health and UBC’s Contraception and Abortion Research Team from 2018-2021. Dr. Schummers’s program of research uses population-based health administrative data and draws heavily on causal inference methods to evaluate impacts of health policy and practice changes on service use, access, and health outcomes. 

TK Pritchard (they/them) is the Executive Director of Abortion Care Canada. TK was previously the Executive Director of a regional Planned Parenthood and has held several leadership roles in related sectors.  In other notable work, TK has authored educational curricula, including sexual health and anti-human trafficking programs, and served as a consultant related to trans and disability inclusion. TK is queer/trans/non-binary, physically disabled, neurodivergent, a survivor of sexual violence, a parent and active community member, and brings this lens to all of their work.

Research you heard about

ICES | Trends in abortion rates in Ontario, Canada

ICES | Changes in local access to mifepristone dispensed by community pharmacies for medication abortion in Ontario: a population-based repeated cross-sectional study

ICES | Abortion safety and use with normally prescribed mifepristone in Canada

Mifepristone Access Through Community Pharmacies When Regulated as a Routine Prescription Medication | Health Policy | JAMA Network Open | JAMA Network

Learn more about Abortion Care Canada

Home - Abortion Care Canada

EPISODE CREDITS:

Produced, edited and mixed by Will Mcintyre, Richard Villeneuve and Pop Up Podcasting
Artwork designed by Stella-Luna Ha
Music licensed through Melodie Music

LINKS:

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