Birth control clinic closing

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Dr. Elizabeth Bagshaw helped open Canada’s first birth control clinic in Hamilton in 1932, at the time the practice was illegal. Now, after decades of providing sexual health services to young women and men, the clinic will shut it’s doors for the last time.

Registered practical nurse Jane Howard has been on staff at Health Initiatives for youth Hamilton for more than 9 years.  “Now that it’s 85 years old we’ve had some grandmothers come in here who’ve said when I was a young girl you were there when I needed you and I’m bringing my granddaughter in here.”

The name has changed but it’s the same organization once headed by medical director Dr. Elizabeth Bagshaw, a pioneer of birth control in Canada at a time when it wasn’t acceptable.

While it’s no longer illegal, Howard says sexual health is still an uncomfortable subject for teens, “that’s the first thing they often ask, do you have to talk to my doctor? do you have to talk to my mom? And I say no, the services you get here are confidential.”

Services include cheaper birth control, sexually transmitted infection and pregnancy tests and counseling. The nurses and doctor here see about 3 000 patients a year but it’s doors are closing Thursday, Hamilton Public Health has cut off funding after 45 years.