Furstenau promises to expand abortion access

BC Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau promises to expand access to reproductive health-care in the province if elected.

Speaking in Victoria Tuesday, Furstenau called out the BC NDP and B.C. Conservative platforms for not properly addressing the issue or pledging improvements.

“Abortion is health-care. The Greens are committed to ensuring everybody in B.C. can access the health-care they need,” said Furstenau.

“And unlike the BC Conservatives, we do not consider this to be a federal issue. Health-care is delivered provincially and is a provincial issue in terms of access and equity.”

A Green government, she says, would also expand the scope of midwifery practice to allow them to prescribe some safe abortion medications. For rural communities, the BC Greens also promised to prioritize better transit options for people hoping to reach vital reproductive health services.

Furstenau also promised to bring improvements to health-care access on postsecondary campuses.

“We are unfortunately continuing to see a lack of safety for too many students. Eleven per cent of students who identify as women were sexually assaulted at postsecondary settings in 2019 — so were four per cent of students who identified as men,” she explained.

The BC Greens say they would introduce ‘Safe Night Out’ legislation that will provide evidence based, trauma informed sexual assault and harassment prevention training for on-campus bars and other establishments that cater to students.

“We’ll provide annual funding for sexual violence prevention offices on campus, amend campus safety standards and prevent the misuse of NDAs by post secondary institutions,” Furstenau added.

Advance voting for the provincial election will continue until Wednesday, Oct. 16. The final voting date is Saturday, Oct. 19.