Recommendations
Ensure Access to Sexual Health Services for All
1. Make Health Canada’s Sexual and Reproductive Health Fund permanent, A-based funding.
2. Invest all available means to support provinces and territories in implementing Pharmacare and universal cost coverage for contraception.
3. Increase investments in Canada’s human rights accountability infrastructure.
Sustain Reliable Information and Programmatic Interventions on Sexual Health
4. Invest in an ongoing national sexual health survey.
5. Invest in the new Canadian Abortion Services Survey.
Strengthen Canada’s Global Leadership in Advancing Sexual Health and Rights
6. Increase the amount of Canada’s international assistance that is dedicated to ensuring access to contraception, safe abortion, advocacy and comprehensive sexuality education.
7. Increase Canada’s overall international assistance.
8. Ensure international assistance programs run for 7-year project cycles.
9. Increase core financial support to multilateral institutions and civil society organizations that advance the human rights dimensions of SRHR, specifically UNFPA and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Action Canada for Sexual Health & Rights is a charitable human rights organization committed to advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR)ii in Canada and globally through policy advocacy, research, and health promotion.
Amid global and national erosion of gender equality, human rights, democratic norms and accountability mechanisms, Canada must take a firm political and financial stance in countering anti-democratic and anti-rights actors. Such a stance recognizes that investing in robust feminist movements, strong human rights accountability mechanisms as well as ensuring equitable and meaningful access to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services is essential to turning this destructive tide. Through these investments and monitoring the standards of services and education over time, we can sustain healthy democracies that meet human rights standards for all.
In Budget 2025, we recommend that Canada make a series of concrete investments to: (1) ensure access to sexual health services for all (2) sustain reliable information and programmatic interventions on sexual health (3) strengthen Canada's global leadership in advancing sexual health and rights.
Ensure Access to Sexual Health Services for All
Investing in SRH services is cost-saving for the healthcare system. Sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections (STBBIs), unintended pregnancy, and sexual offences cost Canada over $6 billion annually. Investments in proactive measures can significantly reduce this unnecessary spending and have a profound impact on Canadian‘s health and well-being. The Sexual and Reproductive Health Fund, announced in Budget 2021 and renewed in 2023, has made a significant impact. For example, Action Canada’s Access Line phone and text service supported over 4,100 callers from 2022 – 2023, 50% of whom faced major barriers to accessing abortion services. Making the Sexual and Reproductive Health Fund permanent A-based funding is crucial to avoid leaving marginalized groups without essential services.
Universal contraceptive coverage in a national pharmacare system is an evidence-based and cost-effective measure that allows for better family planning, a decrease in the number of unintended pregnancies, and improved social and economic outcomes for people who can be pregnant. Right now, about 46%v of pregnancies in Canada are unintended. Cost modelling from the Contraception and Abortion Research Team (CART) at the University of British Columbia found that universal coverage of contraception in British Colombia would result in cost savings to the health system in as little as four years. Budget 2025 must guarantee all available means to support provinces and territories in implementing Pharmacare including universal cost coverage for contraception.
To ensure that all people can meaningfully access SHR, strong human rights accountability mechanisms are required. Currently, Canada's human rights reporting, monitoring and implementation infrastructure is not fit for purpose. This was highlighted during Canada’s 2023 review before the UN Human Rights Council where states and civil society recommended that Canada strengthen its National Mechanism for Reporting and Follow-Up (NMRF). Canada has accepted these recommendations and now has an obligation to follow throughvii. In 2024, the Department of Canadian Heritage has taken steps to engage civil society more consistently in the human rights implementation process, however, there is much more work to do. This includes:
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Mandating a federal minister to be accountable for the implementation of human rights recommendations, and not simply for the coordination among different jurisdictions.
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Establishing a legal framework for the implementation of UN Human Rights Recommendations.
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Making information on participation in Canada’s UN review processes, their outcomes and the status of implementation publicly available.
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Providing funding for civil society to participate in UN review processes and consultations.
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Conducting consultations with civil society, Indigenous Peoples and rights holders in advance of UN reviews.
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Providing funding for civil society to organize autonomously in order to meaningfully participate in engagement processes.
SRH Fund
$20 million/year.
Annually.
Sustain Reliable Information and Programmatic Interventions on Sexual Health
The spread of misinformation and disinformation, coupled with the enactment of regressive legislation and policies that curtail abortion and contraception access, LGBTQIA+ rights and comprehensive sexuality education, has emboldened a growing global anti-rights and anti-gender movement. In Canada, anti-abortion organizations use misleading information in an attempt to dissuade people from seeking safe abortion and some politicians are promoting disinformation regarding sexuality education and gender-affirming care. The federal government plays a critical role in directly addressing misinformation through the provision and promotion of judgment-free evidence-based health information.
Disaggregated data and evidence on SRHR can dispel disinformation and misinformation. It can also make way for improvements in sexual health policy and services in the long run. Budget 2021 allocated $7.6 million over 5 years for the development of a national sexual health survey. This initial investment needs to be increased by $3 million in 2025 to allow for a larger sample size. Additionally, Canada must commit $8 million for the period of 2026-2031 for the next iteration of the survey.
Data on national providers is critical to inform where health providers are delivering abortion care and to show existing gaps in abortion access in Canada. Robust data that explores the workforce and clinical care for abortion in Canada also dispels misinformation on key sexual healthcare services. The true number of abortion providers in Canada is unknown due to both the sensitive nature of this work and the lack of systemic recordingviii. Budget 2025 should invest in a new Canadian Abortion Services Survey conducted by Statistics Canada. This should include investing $3 million in the initial survey set-up followed by an additional $1 million per four-year research period.
National Sexual Health Survey
$11 million Across 6 years.
Canadian Abortion Services Survey
$3 million to establish the new survey.
$1 million permanently for each research cycle (every four years).
Strengthen Canada’s Global Leadership in Advancing Sexual Health and Rights
Unsafe abortions are a leading cause of maternal death and disability globally. If all women in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs) used the most effective contraceptives and received proper care, unintended pregnancies, unsafe abortions, and maternal deaths would drop by about two-thirdsix. Meeting all women’s needs for modern contraception, maternal and newborn care, abortion services and treatment for the major curable STIs would cost $69 billion annually for LMICs, representing a $31 billion (83%) increase over the current annual expenditures towards SRH carex. Canada’s 10-year commitment to women's and children’s health including $350m/year towards the most neglected areas of SRHR is a critical step towards meeting these extensive needs. Canada must continue growing its portfolio in this area and leverage its investments to encourage other donor countries to step up.
In a time of concurrent global crises, Canada must also play its part in supporting a more peaceful and just world through its international assistance. Canada must continue to make good on its 2021 promise to increase the international assistance budget every year. As such, we endorse Cooperation Canada’s recommendations, including a commitment of an additional $650 million per year for four years until 2028/29 in support of young people, especially young women and girls.
Globally, Canada is a leader in its investment towards women human rights defenders and SRHR advocates. By funding international SRHR projects, Canada is taking a conscious role in promoting resilient healthcare systems and gender equality. Increasing Canada's SRHR funding is helping to close persistent gapsxi, so Canada must consider moving towards providing core funding for SRHR programming. In the absence of core funding, Budget 2025 must ensure international funding for SRHR projects run for 7-year project cycles. This will ensure the predictability, sustainability, and stability of projects focused on safeguarding SRHR as integral for human rights that are under severe threat.
With regard to multilateral funding, Canada must align its contributions with its stated goals of achieving gender equality and SRHR for all. Amidst the global rollback of human rights norms and standards, the highest multilateral body responsible for monitoring and safeguarding human rights is facing an unprecedented financial crisis. The UN Human Rights Council has been forced to implement austerity measures that are preventing this body from effectively carrying out its mandatexii. These measures include postponing mandated reports, understaffing the Office of the High Commissioner and Commissions of Inquiry, limiting Special Procedure Mandate Holders to one country visit per year, and restricting human rights defenders’ participation in official proceedings, among many others. These reductions in capacity serve to undermine the human rights system as a whole. Human rights defenders, who look to this body as one of the only safe avenues to hold their governments accountable for violations of human rights, are losing hope that the UN Human Rights Council can deliver any meaningful remedy. At the same time, States that shirk their international human rights obligations benefit from the lack of accountability and from the dysfunction of the system. As a champion of human rights and as a candidate for the Human Rights Council for 2028, Canada has an obligation to name the UN Human Rights Council financial crisis as a deliberate attack on human rights and at the same time increase its core contributions to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to at least $20 million. With the rise of anti-SRHR and far-right governments around the world, we also recommend Canada to increase its core contributions to UNFPA, the only UN agency dedicated solely to advancing sexual and reproductive rights.
ODA to Neglected Areas of SRHR
Incremental increase from baseline of $350 million/year.
Annually.
Increased International Assistance
Additional annual increase of $650 million/year.
Across four years.
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
$20 million/year.
Annually.