Welcome to the The Contraception & Abortion Research Team – Groupe de recherche sur l’avortement et la contraception (CART-GRAC) network home page. We are a multidisciplinary, pan-Canadian research network of researchers, clinicians, trainees, decision makers, and community advocates. We share a commitment to conducting impactful research that improves equitable access to the knowledge, methods and services that people throughout Canada need to realize their own goals for whether and when to have children. CART-GRAC is founded and led by Professor. Wendy V. Norman, Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Family Planning Innovation. The core infrastructure for our CART-GRAC lab is centred at The University of British Columbia, within the Women’s Health Research Institute of British Columbia Women’s Hospital and Health Centre and the Provincial Health Services Authority.

At CART-GRAC, we respectfully acknowledge that our main office and nearby places of work lie on the ancestral unceded territories of the sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh), and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations and we include our respect for the lands of our collaborators and partners throughout Canada.

NEWSFLASH! BC Government’s 2023 Budget includes 

“Free Prescription Contraception for all”!  See CART’s invited research evidence supporting this decision

Contraception-Cost-Effectiveness_CART-Report_2018-06-21

The cost-effectiveness modelling for Contraception in BC is based on findings from our BC Sexual Health Survey:

Did you know? 

Contraception is expensive, and people have difficulty to meet contraception costs. In addition to requiring more money to purchase menstrual products when not using hormonal contraceptives (estimated at over $6000 in a person’s lifetime) the cost of contraception can be prohibitive!  For an average pregnancy capable person menstruation begins at age 12 in Canada, and ends at a mean age of 51. This means people with a uterus could become pregnant anytime throughout 39 years over their lifetime. An average person wishing to have at most two children, will be trying to become pregnant, be pregnant, or be immediately post-partum for about 4 years. This means pregnancy capable people spend about 35 years not trying to become pregnant. With oral hormonal contraception at about $40 per 4 week package, and 13 four week segments in a calendar year, over a lifetime an individual may need over $19,000 just for their contraception!