N.L. election candidates talk fertility
ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — The Liberal party in Newfoundland and Labrador announced Thursday it will open an in vitro fertilization (IVF) clinic in the province if elected, but a local advocate for fertility services says she’ll believe it when she sees it.
“Our government listens, and over several months we have heard the concerns of families hoping to bring a child into their communities as well as doctors looking at ways to offer IVF services,” Liberal Leader Andrew Furey said in a news release.
The party said low fertility rates, along with an aging population and outmigration, have caused a demographic crisis in the province. Newfoundland and Labrador needs more young people, and a Liberal government will encourage families to grow here through a number of different avenues, Furey said.
“Our government will also seek opportunities for associated prescribed medications to become more affordable as the federal government works toward a national, universal pharmacare program,” the news release stated.
Mount Pearl, N.L., resident Ledon Wellon says she’s not going to hold her breath yet.
“It’s exciting to hear, but there’ve been promises before, so I can’t get too excited without actually seeing anything start to happen,” Wellon said in an interview.
“Funding is really helpful, but ultimately we would love to have a clinic here so we could have access just like the rest of Canada,” she said.
Progressive Conservative Leader John Crosbie said Thursday he supports the idea of a local clinic.
“It deserves to be supported,” he told reporters. “As you know, we have a declining population, the only province in the country that has that. So, anything like IVF that helps create new residents of people that have families and help with the population is an issue I would be in favour of.”
NDP Leader Allison Coffin, meanwhile, noted the Liberal government has been reluctant until now to fund the service.
“We do need better access to these fertility clinics, but what I have heard from the minister of Health was that the costs are prohibitive,” she said.
“And I do believe that the minister had said that they're concentrated in Toronto for a particular reason, so I would argue that, maybe if it's not economically feasible to have the services here, then we need to make it very accessible, much like a (travel assistance) program of getting the folks who are here to those services that will help them have children,” she added.
Wellon, who started a Facebook page last year called Faces of Fertility, has been trying various fertility treatments for the past six years. In March 2020, she travelled to Calgary for an IVF procedure, but the pandemic intervened and she hasn’t been able to return for followup.
Her frozen embryos are being held in storage.
“If they were here, I would have already been able to try again,” she said. “