Message from the President – November 2025

October was a full and energizing month for the SOGC. We had the privilege of attending FIGO 2025 in Cape Town, South Africa. Meeting colleagues from around the world who are dedicated to improving the lives of women was inspiring, and it reinforced our obligation to advocate, at home and globally, for women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights. I encourage you to plan for FIGO 2027 in Montreal; it’s an unparalleled opportunity to learn and contribute.

As outlined in my October newsletter, Dr. Francoeur and I testified before the Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs on Bill S-228. The bill proposes to amend the Criminal Code to expressly identify coerced sterilization as aggravated assault, with a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison. It clarifies that a “sterilization procedure” includes “the severing, clipping, tying or cauterizing, in whole or in part, of the Fallopian tubes, ovaries or uterus … or any other procedure … that results in the permanent prevention of reproduction, regardless of whether the procedure is reversible.”

Bill S-228 passed Third Reading in the Senate without amendment on Oct. 2, 2025, and now proceeds to the House of Commons for study. The Canadian Medical Association testified in support of this bill, signaling broad physician concern about coerced sterilization. While we share the goal of ending this abhorrent practice, we remain deeply concerned about potential unintended consequences of this bill for patients and for obstetrics and gynaecology.

Clinical reality is unforgiving. Emergencies (massive hemorrhage, ruptured ectopic pregnancy) unfold in minutes. In those moments, physicians cannot pause to parse legal nuances: our duty is to save lives. If life-saving actions can later be second-guessed as criminal acts, hesitation becomes a tangible risk borne by patients. Beyond emergencies, if procedures are perceived as criminalized, clinicians may step back from offering tubal ligation even when women request it, further constraining access. We have already seen chilling effects in parts of the United States, where legal uncertainty around reproductive care has led to delays in urgent treatment with tragic outcomes. We must not replicate that experience in Canada.

I encourage you to share your concerns about Bill S-228 with the CMA and with your Member of Parliament. We believe a better path exists to prevent coerced sterilization through: strengthened informed consent processes; culturally safe care that learns from and listens to Indigenous and other marginalized women; co-ordinated action with provincial/territorial colleges and the CMPA. Criminalizing procedures will not, on its own, solve the underlying problems we need to address.

I look forward to connecting with many of you at the Ontario CME. Please reach out to me at president@sogc.com.

Dr. Lynn Murphy-Kaulbeck  
SOGC President