Martha Paynter

Dr. Martha Paynter is a registered nurse providing abortion and postpartum care. She holds a PhD in Nursing and is a postdoctoral fellow at University of British Columbia Faculty of Medicine. She is the founder and coordinator of Wellness Within: An Organization for Health and Justice, a Nova Scotia non-profit organization that works for reproductive jsutice for people experiencing incarceration.

Her first book, Abortion to Abolition: Reproductive Health and Justice in Canada, was published by Fernwood Publishing in spring 2022.

For her nursing advocacy and research, Dr. Paynter has received numerous awards including the 2018 Rising Star Award from the Canadian Association of Perinatal and Women’s Health Nurses, the 2018 Health Advocacy Award from the Council of the College of Registered Nurses of Nova Scotia, and in 2017, the Senate of Canada Sesquicentennial (150) Medal for volunteer service to the country.

Dr. Paynter has received funding from the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, CIHR, the Killam Trust, the Canadian Nurses Foundation, Dalhousie University and the IWK Health Centre, among others.