Dr. Jillian Demontigny, a Lethbridge, Alberta physician, is leading the way. She has joined forces with the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) to take Alberta’s controversial Bill 26 to court. In January 2024, this bill was introduced. Healthcare providers are truly alarmed about the healthcare implications of what this bill could do to prevent gender-affirming care and other reproductive medical treatments.
Dr. Demontigny has over 25 years of clinical experience working with transgender diverse individuals of all ages. She worries that the bill endangers more than just her practice, the fate of the whole healthcare world. She is personally despondent about how bad the legislation could be. It would impede access to essential services, including reproductive health care and opioid use disorder treatment.
Dr. Demontigny has been an advocate in creating safer environments where gender-diverse people can receive healthcare. He played a role in developing the Primary Care Alberta Gender Affirming Care Pathway, an essential tool that helps primary care providers deliver support to these patients. That’s why this new pathway focuses on making sure practitioners have the knowledge and tools they need to deliver the right care at the right time.
Looking back on her decision to fight Bill 26, Dr. Demontigny said it was a relief when the CMA first contacted her. She stated, “If you see a patient population that you serve being targeted by misguided laws, I think part of my duty as a physician in the community is to speak about that.” Her commitment extends to always advocating for her patients and their needs, exemplifying her dedication to providing the most compassionate, well-informed, and caring healthcare possible.
During her testimony, Dr. Demontigny focused on the serious implications of Bill 26. He cautioned that this narrow legislation would open the door to further limiting patients’ access to essential healthcare services. “We’re all at risk if we allow laws to be drafted that have no medical basis, have no sociological benefit, but do cause harm,” she cautioned.
The physician’s concerns don’t just stop at gender-affirming care, as she worries the bill would threaten access to many other treatments. “Gender-affirming care is very important for everybody,” she noted. To be clear, Bill 26 is actually only targeting gender affirming care for transgender diverse individuals under 18, but every time I see a patient who requests contraception, or a vasectomy, or a hysterectomy, or acne treatment that can be seen as affirming of them in their gender identity.
She began her residency in 2003. She has dedicated her career to building inclusive spaces for marginalized communities in Southern Alberta, where the most recent census data reports the second highest density of people who identify as transgender diverse in the province. Although her world of work faces the challenges of legislative roll-backs, Judith shines with optimism about her work and her community. “I love getting to practice this kind of medicine and I love this community that I get to live and practice in,” she said.
