Medical and birth tourism

Updated: February 2024

Medical tourism (including birth tourism) occurs when Canadian physicians are involved in soliciting (including advertising to) non-Canadian residents to come to Canada for the purposes of receiving medical treatment (e.g. abortion services, prescribing, perinatal care).

Physicians have a duty to provide urgent and emergent care to all patients, including non-residents and medical tourists, and CMPA will generally provide assistance in the event a medico-legal case is brought in Canada in response to urgent or emergent care. CMPA assistance becomes complicated when members are involved in soliciting (including advertising to) medical tourists.

We encourage all members who are soliciting (including advertising to) medical tourists to contact us for advice and guidance.

Principles of assistance

• Understand what constitutes a resident and a non-resident: Treating non-residents of Canada
• Prescribing to non-patients a risky activity

Other resources

• Governing Law and Jurisdiction Agreement (GLJA).
• Prescribing for non-residents: Know your risks
• Abortion services for non-residents
• Reduce your risks when treating non-residents: They can’t sue you from outside Canada, or can they?
• Non-residents seeking perinatal care—Inviting, soliciting, or pre-arranging (Joint Statement – CMPA and HIROC)