The YSPOR team is working with the Opal Clinic and the Yukon Status of Women Council (YSWC) to explore the feasibility of providing no-touch abortions in rural Yukon communities. This project will work to investigate whether it is safe and realistic to provide medical abortion care supported through telemedicine and whether having a program like this would meaningfully impact people who are needing to access abortion in the territory. The motivation for this project is driven by the experiences of Dr. Fair at the Opal Clinic, the current political climate, and recent public posts by Yukoners who have shared experiences of facing significant barriers when accessing abortion care. This work will focus on analyzing data that already exists and reviewing the literature to learn from no-touch abortion programs that are already in place in other settings.
Isabelle Schwarz is the Research Assistant who will be supporting this work alongside Dr. Michelle Leach. They gathered a small advisory group that currently includes the Opal Clinic, YSWC, the Yukon Government Health and Social Services Sexualized Assault Response unit, Community Nursing, and people with lived experience representatives who will all help to shape the project.
This work is still in the early stages. We are working on gathering information to understand current limitations to abortion access in the territory, which data we will need to review to understand how many people are struggling to access abortion care, and looking to other regions to understand policies and procedures for no-touch medical abortion programs that already exist.
Author: Isabelle Schwarz