Reproductive health is not a privilege, but a right.

There is a lack of education around women’s reproductive health and even less for trans women, mainly because the topic has been so stigmatized. Because of the lack of medical resources for women and having medical professionals dismiss their concerns, women are then removed a certain agency from their own bodies. In the current Ontario curriculum the public school system has an outlined planned of what information regarding health and sexuality at what ages, where as the Catholic school system has their own curricula and often do not offer information on sexual health due to religious beliefs. With this in mind, the vision is create a local space which not only offers a myriad of sexual and reproductive health services, but also as a site for in person and virtual learning for all those who identify as a women. This work is meant to be an extension of current activism on women’s health as well as the services that clinics such as planned parenthood offer, in addition to offering courses to provide information on material that the Ontario school curriculum may not offer/give the option for education on topics such as anatomy and sexual health that some people may have not been able to receive.

AREA OF FOCUS: TORONTO CENTRAL/ SOUTH CABBAGETOWN

In the city of Toronto which has a population of 2,956,024 people , 51.5% of which are visible minorities, 51.2% are immigrants, 23,065 are indigenous, 132,765 cannot speak English (according to the 2016 census) (City of Toronto, 2020), and 52% of its population is made up by women (T.O Health check, 2019), there are 15 women’s health care centres/ medical facilities that offer services for women’s health (Women’s Health Care Centres, 2023) in Toronto central. Toronto central spans 6 km2 with a population of 103,805 people (Election Ontario, 2023), and it includes the neighbourhood of South Cabbagetown. In the neighbourhood of South Cabbagetown located in Toronto’s downtown, there is only one women’s clinic where its services are focused on surgical abortions, contraception, and medical abortions. Planned parenthood has one location in Toronto located on Prince Arthur Avenue, which is a 12 mins drive, 29 minutes TTC commute and 45 minutes’ walk from the women’s clinic in Cabbagetown. This is the Cabbage town women’s clinic, and to receive their services an appointment is needed but they do have the capacity to do same day appointments.

CONTEXT

A bit of context. In Canada and in countries all around the world women have had to demonstrate such incredible strength and resiliency just to obtain basic human rights, and in Canada there has been the progression of women’s movements that have centred around white women, and then finally movements have emerged to advocate and fight for the rights of women of colour as well as those who identify as a woman and are a part of the LGBTQ2+ community. To give some perspective at how recent basic rights have been attained for women and the LGBTQ2+ community some examples will be provided courtesy of the government of Canada’s website and their Women in Canadian history timeline. In 1960 all Canadian women were given the right to vote In 1977 the Canadian Human Rights Acts was created, forbidding the discrimination of a person based of their sex with the goal of having equal pay for both men and women. Women’s rights weren’t enshrined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms until 1981, and sexual orientation was not added to the Charter until 1996. In 2005 Same sex marriage was finally legalized. In 2015 there was at last a national inquiry launched into missing and murdered indigenous women. 2015 was also the year there was a gender-balanced cabinet.

(Canada, Women and Gender Equality, 2021)

Only as of 2021 did Canada included the “at birth” portion on the question of sex on the Canadian census (Government of Canada, Statistics Canada., 2022), according to the information gathered from the census, 59,460 people in Canada caged 15+ living in a private household were transgender and 41,355 were non-binary with 92.5% of non-binary people residing an urban setting (Government of Canada, Statistics Canada., 2022) before 2021 there has been an extreme lack of representation of transgender and non binary people, leaving their voices, rights and concerns underrepresented as they weren't even seen on the Canadian census.

EDUCATION WITHIN THE SCHOOL SYSTEM

The TDSB currently follows a lesson plan provided by the Ontario curriculum which outlines what information regarding sexual health will be provided to children at what ages. While this is in effect, Ontario's education minister made the decision to allow parents the decision to remove their children from sex-ed classes (Alphonso, 2019). Action Canada for sexual health & rights released a report titles 'state of sex-ed report back in 2020, with detailed information around the sexual education curriculum in Canada, highlighting that there is no consistent education on the topic as each province has the autonomy to determine their own health curricula (Action Canada for sexual health & rights, 2020). To quote from the report

" Sex-ed is key in making sure people have the right information they need to make important health decision. This means it can help us lower STI rates and help make public health better. It also plays another crucial role. Sex-ed, when done right, can be a key intervention to prevent childhood sexual abuse, intimate partner violence, and sexual violence.Educating children about their bodies, body autonomy, and safe/unsafe touch from a young age is an important way to keep them safe. By making sure that children learn about their bodies (including the correct names of their genitals) and about human reproduction and sexuality, we give them the tools and vocabulary to tell trusted adults and healthcare professionals when they need help"

(Action Canada for sexual health & rights, 2020)

Unfortunately the catholic church still stands by the following statement "The Roman Catholic church teaches that LGBTQ+ people should be treated with dignity and respect, but sexual relations between people of the same sex are still considered a sin" (Cheese, 2023). While everyone is entitled to their religious opinion and they should be respected, denying and shaming conversation around sexual relations, and sexual health closes the possibility for informed youth and adults about their own bodies and how to keep themselves safe and maintain a certain level of agency over their bodies.

CURRENT ACTIVISM THAT HAS BEEN A SOURCE OF INSPIRATION

Planned parenthood is a health care centre that myself and majority of my friends were most familiar with and felt the safest going to when we all first moved to Toronto, they offer services for birth control, abortion, plan B and STI treatment. For STI treatment a virtual appointment is needed first which needs to be booked in advance, same for birth control. Planned parenthood does not offer abortions but offer clinical services such as immunizations. PP was the initial spark of interest for this extension on current activism being done for women's reproductive and sexual health.

The second current activism that inspired interest on the issue of reproductive health and justice for women was Action Canada for sexual health & rights.  With a focus on doing work in Canada and globally, the ACFSHR builds off the previous organizations that created Action Canada to promote not only health, but wellbeing and rights regarding both sexuality and reproduction (Action Canada, 2023). On their website there is a section with 9 different section providing resources such as reports & analysis, a tool to help users find sexual health services near them, “Beyond the basics” which is a resource for educators about sexuality and sexual health, and more.

The third current activism which was a source if inspiration is the Women & HIV/AIDS initiative who take into account the structural factors to increase the risk factors of women contracting HIV. There work ranges but is not limited to working with communities all across Ontario to provide support, providing consultations and advice, leading and facilitating glacial initiatives, distributing resource materials and other HIV prevention tools (Whai, 2022), and more. On their website they also provide extensive resources to provide a variety of reading materials to provide tools, information and starting points for those looking to be more informed on structural/systemic issued regarding sexual health, anti-racism and more specifically HIV.

Commonalities

All the above mentioned health care facilities/sites of activism have a few characteristics in common. They provided services for local communities, help other communities, provide knowledge and an array of information to inform the communities they serve, and their work is centred around reproductive health.

THE GOAL

To ensure that all those who identify as a women, women of colour, indigenous women and women of all different religious backgrounds can get access to everything they need in terms of proper, accessible sexual and reproductive health care, the vision is to create a local hybrid centre; medical office and learning space. Instead of having to commute to multiple facilities for knowledge and health care, the idea is to have both offered in the same space. In order to bring this space to fruition, there would have to be some partnership with the provincial in order to provide the health care services like abortions, check ups, immunizations, blood work and more. Many of the current services offered in Toronto central require referrals, previous test to be completed, OHIP, insurance, appointments, the wait for an appointment can be weeks, and the hours of operation are regimented 9-5 while most people are at work. With the support of the community and government the intent would be to have the facility open for atleast 12-13 hours a day, 5-6 days a week depending on the amount of staff available in order to best serve people with all different lifestyles and schedules. With having a full service facility, ideally anything that needs to be done like blood work, can be done on site so people dont need to have several appointments completed before they receive our services. As well removing the accessibility gap by not requiring insurance, referrals, not needing to be covered under OHIP in order to receive services. these decisions would be made in consultation with the local and government officials to ensure that all these measures would be safe. To provide the courses, partnerships with people in the community will be essential to ensure that their are instructors of all ethnicities, sexualities and faith bring that their voice and expertise to the table to make the space as inviting as possible to all people. Like the women's health clinic in south Cabbegtown who offer services in 4 languages including Romanian and French, this space will aim to bridge the language barrier by offering translation services for the courses and health care services, as well as an ASL interpreter. Recordings of the classes would also be offered for those uncomfortable to go into a space with other strangers or unable to travel to the location. As remarked by the ACFSHRT, the more educated not only youth but adults are regarding sexual and reproductive health it can prevent a-lot of sexual violence, trauma and harm to them and to other, but also help facilitate a healthier population of people. This space will aim to serve the residence within the neighbourhood in which it is located but will be open to all. The aim is to be as much of a household name as Planned parenthood for its accessibility and inclusivity as a source of security and safety for the women of Toronto central, and someday beyond to help facilitate agency for all those who identify as women over their own bodies, and to better understand their bodies.

Citations

“Action Canada: Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights.” Action Canada | Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights. Accessed April 28, 2023.  https://www.actioncanadashr.org/ .

Action Canada for sexual health & rights. “State of Sex-Ed Report.” State of Sex-Ed Report | Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights, 2020.  https://www.actioncanadashr.org/resources/reports-analysis/2020-04-03-state-sex-ed-report .

Alphonso, Caroline. “Parents Will Be Allowed to Remove Children from Sex-Ed Classes under New Ontario Government Curriculum.” The Globe and Mail. The Globe and Mail, August 21, 2019.  https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-parents-will-be-allowed-to-remove-children-from-sex-ed-classes-under/ .

Canada, Women and Gender Equality. “Government of Canada.” Women and Gender Equality Canada. / Gouvernement du Canada, April 14, 2021.  https://women-gender-equality.canada.ca/en/commemorations-celebrations/womens-history-month/women-history-canada-timeline.html .

Cheese, Tyler. “Catholic Sex-Ed Textbooks Discontinued Following Accusations of 'Homophobic,' 'Transphobic' Content.” CBCnews. CBC/Radio Canada, January 11, 2023.  https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/fully-alive-catholic-textbooks-homophobia-transphobia-1.6709426 .

City of Toronto. “Toronto at a Glance.” City of Toronto, July 29, 2020.  https://www.toronto.ca/city-government/data-research-maps/toronto-at-a-glance/ .

Elections Ontario. “Voter Information Service .” Elections Ontario, 2023.  https://voterinformationservice.elections.on.ca/en/electoral-district/109 .

Government of Canada, Statistics Canada. “Canada Is the First Country to Provide Census Data on Transgender and Non-Binary People.” The Daily - , April 27, 2022.  https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/220427/dq220427b-eng.htm .

Planned parenthood toronto, 2022.  https://ppt.on.ca/ .

T.O Healtch check. “Population Demographics - Toronto.” Toronto.ca, 2019.  https://www.toronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/99b4-TOHealthCheck_2019Chapter1.pdf .

Toronto District School Board. “A Parent’s Guide: Human Development and Sexual Health in the Health and ...” Schoolweb, 2014.  https://schoolweb.tdsb.on.ca/Portals/dallington/docs/HPEgrades1to6.pdf .

“Whai: Home.” WHAI Toronto, July 26, 2022.  https://whai.ca/ .

“Women's Clinic: Toronto: Cabbagetown Women's Clinic.” Cabbagetown Clinic, November 4, 2022.  https://www.cabbagetownwomensclinic.com/ .

“Women’s Health Care Centres Provide General Health Care Services, Specifically Addressing Issues of Concern to Women, in Women-Friendly Environments.” Women's Health Care Centres - Toronto Central, 2023.  https://www.torontocentralhealthline.ca/listservices.aspx?id=10145 .