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Being able to access abortion care in your own community is important. However, improving abortion access is about more than increasing the number of clinics and hospitals offering abortion care.

Beyond the most common barriers to abortion, access is affected by many other factors, circumstances, and policies that impact a person’s ability to access health care and make informed decisions about their reproductive health. For example:

• Lack of access to childcare may prevent a person from being able to travel to an abortion clinic located outside of their community
• Insufficient job protections may make it difficult for a person to take time off without fear of losing their job
• Intimate partner violence and reproductive coercion can severely compromise a person’s ability to contact health care providers or attend appointments
• Inadequate sex-ed may result in knowledge gaps that make a person more susceptible to mis/disinformation 

Other factors like a person’s immigration status, what language(s) they speak, whether they have a primary care provider, the kind of support they have or lack, their housing situation, and whether they can access the internet or a cell phone can affect their access to health care. Access is additionally impeded for those who experience racism and/or other forms of identity-based oppression. 

In thinking about who faces barriers to abortion in Canada, it is clear that a variety of approaches is needed to remove all barriers. On a larger scale, the fight for equitable abortion access requires a massive culture shift, and cannot be separated from movements for gender equity, racial justice, migrant justice, and economic justice. In other words, only in a world where everyone’s human rights are met, and where social supports are abundant, can access to safe abortion care be a reality for everyone who needs it.

To ensure that every person has access to safe and legal abortion care, it is necessary to understand the complex range of factors that impact access to abortion. The Abortion Access Tracker is an introductory resource and only one piece of a complex puzzle we are called to solve together as a society.