Abortion access in Ontario rose to over 90% after the pill was approved: study – CTV
April 07, 2025
A new study finds that access to abortion services expanded greatly in the five years after the abortion pill was approved and pharmacies began dispensing it in Ontario, but that surgical abortion services declined and need to be preserved.
Research published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal Monday says that most people in Ontario did not have access to abortion services in 2017.
But they say access in urban and rural areas increased from 37 per cent in 2017 to 91 per cent in 2022.
Researchers peg that to eased regulations for pharmacists to dispense Mifegymiso, the brand name for a combination of two medications taken consecutively, mifepristone and misoprostol, approved by Health Canada in 2017.
The study looked at population-based health administrative data from 2017 to 2022.
The study found the drug was used in 56 per cent of abortions in 2022, up from about eight per cent in 2017.
“This is really the first evidence that we have in Canada of the effect of how access to abortion services have changed since the introduction of mifepristone,” says lead author Laura Schummers, an assistant professor in the faculty of pharmaceutical sciences at the University of British Columbia.
