VICTORIA, BC — The BC Greens are proposing a plan to create safer, healthier, and more equitable communities across BC by expanding access to reproductive healthcare and improving accountability and safety on post-secondary campuses.
Expanding reproductive healthcare access:
Recognizing the essential need for better reproductive healthcare in British Columbia, especially in underserved areas, the BC Greens are committed to removing barriers and ensuring reproductive rights are protected across the province.
This includes expanding the scope of midwifery practice to allow for the prescription of vital medications like mifepristone and misoprostol, which are key to providing early access to safe abortion services.
“We’re dedicated to broadening access to the full spectrum of abortion healthcare services,” said Sonia Furstenau, Leader of the BC Greens. “This includes making sure transportation isn’t a barrier to healthcare. People in underserved areas need reliable, affordable transit to reach their healthcare providers. In places like Haida Gwaii, where the nearest clinic offering full abortion services is 900 kilometers away, that’s just unacceptable. No one should be unable to get care due to barriers like transportation. That’s why we are focused on making transit a reliable, viable option for all British Columbians.”
Enhancing safety on post-secondary campuses:
In addition to expanding healthcare access, the BC Greens are proposing a suite of measures to create a culture of safety and accountability at BC’s post-secondary institutions:
- Safe Night Out legislation: to enhance student safety during nighttime activities, both on and off campus, starting with liquor establishments catering to students and expanding to others as capacity increases. Building on the work of Good Night Out Vancouver and Victoria, that offer sexual violence prevention training to hospitality establishments.
- Amendments to campus safety standards: amending existing legislation to include 11 minimum standards identified by Students for Consent Culture, enhancing protections for students at post-secondary institutions.
- $5 Million in annual funding: to support sexual violence prevention offices and initiatives, providing the resources needed to address and prevent harm.
- Reforming Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs): preventing the misuse of NDAs by post-secondary institutions, ensuring greater transparency and accountability in addressing sexual misconduct cases.
“Students should be able to focus on their education without fearing for their safety,” said Dr. Lisa Gunderson, Deputy leader of the BC Green Party and candidate for Oak Bay-Gordon Head. “We need to hold institutions accountable and provide resources to create safe environments.”
Quick facts:
- 1 in 3 people able to get pregnant will have an abortion in their lifetime.
- Access to abortion is a human right. The Government has a responsibility to ensure it is legal, safe, and accessible for all people who choose to have one.
- 11% of students who identify as women at Canadian post-secondary schools were sexually assaulted in a post-secondary setting in 2019. So were 4% of students who identify as men.
- Comparable statistics for non-binary students were not available, but we know that 2SLGBTQ+ students experience rates of physical assault and unwanted sexual touching at double the rate of cisgender heterosexual students and experience attempted sexual assault and sexual assault at a rate 2.5 times higher than cisgender heterosexual students.
- The majority (71%) of students witnessed or experienced unwanted sexualized behaviours – either on or off campus, or in an online situation that involved students or other people associated with the school.
- The majority of women (77%) and men (70%) who had experienced a sexual assault in a post-secondary setting stated that at least one incident had happened off campus. For women, off-campus restaurants or bars were the site of half (51%) of sexual assaults in a post-secondary setting.
- Statistics Canada: in 2021 the rate of police-reported sexual assaults in Canada reached its highest level since 1996 and it still remains the most underreported crime with only six per cent of people coming forward.
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Media contact:
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