Publicly funded birth control leads to high demand for IUD insertions in B.C.

Weeks after B.C. made prescription birth control publicly funded, women are flooding healthcare clinics requesting IUDs, leading to waiting times of several months because of a shortage of clinicians available to insert them. The province became the first to cover the cost of most forms of prescription birth control, a move that was hailed as an important step in providing equitable access to contraception as women used to pay up to $400 for an IUD. The province's healthcare system's being overwhelmed by the rush to take advantage of the policy.