WATCH: After reaching a deal with family practitioners on Monday, Quebec’s health minister Gaetan Barrette announced new amendments to controversial Bill 20.
QUEBEC CITY – Quebec is proposing changes to its in vitro fertilization (IVF) legislation that could allow women over 42 to have access to the program.
Until now Bill 20 provided for the government-financed treatment to be available only for women between the ages of 18 and 42.
Health Minister Gaetan Barrette said today the province’s college of physicians will be responsible for determining the criteria to determine who is eligible for the fertilization.
Another proposed change is the abolition of a rule that would have required women to be eligible only after signing a statement saying they had been sexually active for a long period.
Barrette said earlier this year the objective was to allow nature to take its course and to ensure that the complex and costly medical procedure was not used unnecessarily. He said today the regulation would have been difficult to apply.
The changes were announced on Tuesday, one day after reaching a landmark deal with family practitioners that saw the elimination of patient quotas for family doctors.
WATCH: Quebec Federation of Family Doctors reaches deal with government
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