31A - Reproductive Medicine Should Be Publicly Funded

Summary

I have argued ever since the April Fool’s Day declaration in 1994 that took away public funding of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) in Canada that all women in Canada should have equal access to reproductive medicine [1,2]. I have argued ever since the April Fool’s Day declaration in 1994, no woman in Canada should have to undergo suboptimal and risky medical strategies in order to have IVF or related technologies to achieve having a child [1,2]. These suboptimal and risky strategies include having to sell half their oocytes in exchange (or barter) for access to an IVF cycle [1,2]. What I mean when I refer to having access to appropriate reproductive medicine, including IVF and related technologies, is that all women in Canada with appropriate indications should be able to have multiple publicly funded IVF cycles if they so wish, rather than women in Canada being confined to having only one cycle in some provinces, and only if the woman has blocked (rather than otherwise incapacitated) fallopian tubes as demonstrated by imaging techniques [1]. There are scientifically proven medical indications for IVF and related technologies other than damaged fallopian tubes [2].