In Canada, the province of British Columbia announced on Tuesday February 28 that it would make prescription contraceptives free for everyone. A “victory for health” and for “gender equality,” said Canadian Finance Minister Katrine Conroy.

As backsliding on women’s rights mounts around the world, a Canadian province announced on Tuesday (February 28) that it will make prescription contraceptives free for all.

This new ruling, a first in Canada, affects all health-insured individuals. The latter will be able to obtain various contraceptives free of charge from April 1 on presentation of a prescription, said British Columbia Treasury Secretary Katrine Conroy.

Methods covered include most hormone pills, implants, intrauterine injections, and devices such as the IUD and morning-after pill.

If you consider that “these basic rights (reproductive: editor’s note) are attacked too often” and “the time is over when women and trans and non-binary people had to bear these costs”, free contraceptives are a good idea “Victory for health” and “for gender equality” in this province, said the minister.

At CA$25 a month for birth control pills, the provincial government estimates that people could save up to $10,000 over their lifetime.

With this announcement, the Canadian province follows in the footsteps of several European countries, notably France, the United Kingdom and Germany, which already partially or generally subsidize contraceptives.

After making access to male condoms free for young people aged 18 to 25 in January, the French government plans in its next budget to provide free emergency contraception for all women, as well as screening for certain sexually transmitted infections for everyone, everything without a doctor’s prescription.