Vancouver abortion and reproductive health clinic to shut after 35 years

The examination room Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) Photographer: Joe Raedle/Getty Images North America (Joe Raedle/Getty Images via Bloomberg)

VANCOUVER — A Vancouver abortion and reproductive health clinic that has operated for more than three decades is shutting its doors due to funding uncertainty.

The Elizabeth Bagshaw Clinic says the facility’s lease is set to run out this summer, and relocating and investing in a new site “did not make sense” given there is only one more year of confirmed funding for its services.

The clinic’s board says in a news release that the uncertainty stems from “changes to the provincial health care system” that includes a shift by Vancouver Coastal Health to a new sexual and reproductive health model.

The clinic says it will work with Vancouver Coastal Health and other clinics to make sure its patients continue to have access to abortion and reproductive health services.

The release does not provide an exact date when the clinic that was founded in 1989 will close.

Board co-chair Robyn Jones-Murrell says in a statement that the closure is going to add more strain to an “already overburdened” reproductive care system in British Columbia, adding that the province needs to establish a “dedicated provincial strategy” to alleviate the stress.

The clinic is named after Dr. Elizabeth Bagshaw, who it calls “a pioneer in reproductive choice” who helped set up Canada’s first community birth-control clinic

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 28, 2025.