Grant: Project Grant

Our CIHR project grant is a strategic initiative designed to address the critical barriers to abortion access for Indigenous women, Two-Spirit, and LGBTQIA+ community members in Canada. Despite the legality and commonality of abortion, there remains substantial access and support challenges, compounded by issues of violence, coercion, and cultural insensitivity. This project leverages findings from a 3-year SSHRC-funded study and strengthens partnerships with national Indigenous and reproductive health organizations. Its core goal is to translate Indigenous knowledge into actionable strategies that enhance culturally safe, gender-affirming, and trauma-informed abortion services. Key objectives include the co-development of a Culturally Safe Abortion Support Hotline, the formulation of an Indigenous Evaluation Framework to assess and refine the hotline, and based on what we learn from the evaluation, the creation of a Cultural Safety Credential to elevate the standard of abortion care. The overarching impact envisioned by this project is the empowerment and self-determination of Indigenous communities, leading to the dismantling of current abortion access barriers and the fostering of a collaborative network for knowledge exchange. This 5-year project is committed to co-creating resources through knowledge translation and evaluation, and integrating knowledge mobilization to improve health outcomes and systems for Indigenous peoples across Canada.