Article content continued

Trevor Theman, registrar with the CPSA, said the policy does not require Westglen to have a doctor on hand who can prescribe the pill.

He did not specify what “timely” meant, but said a delay in receiving a birth control prescription is “not likely going to disadvantage a patient in a serious way.”

“There’s a degree of urgency but it’s not like life or death today kind of urgency,” he said, adding most women should be seeing a family doctor about their sexual health needs.

“In an ideal world, women who need birth control or are seeking birth control will have a regular doctor and won’t just be dropping into a walk-in clinic to get a prescription for birth control pills.”

Dr. Barry declined to make a comment. In 2010 profile by the University of Alberta, she described the struggles of raising two small children during medical school.

“I was completely exhausted, up all night with my baby, missing part of my rounds and pumping in between lectures … It was unbelievably stressful and there were many tears,” she said, citing God as one of her sources of strength.

In an ideal world, women … won’t just be dropping into a walk-in clinic to get a prescription for birth control

“If kids happen or someone is planning on children, there are ways of dealing with it and getting through it. It is all worth it.”

Pam Krause, president and CEO of the Calgary Sexual Health Centre, said she’s aware of doctors who morally object to making abortion referrals, but refusing to prescribe birth control is virtually unheard of in Alberta.

“It just does not seem acceptable to me because in a way you’re refusing care,” she said. “If somebody has that strong of values and they really can’t do that, it should be set up so that they have to refer to somebody else right away who can do it.”