How the COVID-19 Pandemic is Affecting Women ’ s Sexual and Reproductive Health

A dated photo of a mother and her child from West Point, a low-income neighbourhood of Monrovia, Liberia. Advocates worry that there will be numerous kinds of impact on women’s access to sexual and reproductive health facilities around the world as countries and cities are under lockdown under the COVID-19 pandemic. Credit: Travis Lupick/IPSBy Samira SadequeUNITED NATIONS, Apr 7 2020 (IPS) A little over half of women across the globe are able to freely make choices about their sexual and reproductive health, according to a latest report based on data from 57 countries.  However, as much of the world has gone into lockdown because of the coronavirus pandemic, with countries implementing social distancing and restricting the free movement of people, experts are concerned that even this small gain in sexual and reproductive health may suffer negatively. “Globally, as COVID-19 has taken hold, access to sexual and reproductive health care services, from routine services and testing for STIs to antenatal care, contraception, and abortion, has suffered significantly,” Liza Kane-Hartnett, communications officer at the International Women’s Health Coalition (IWHC), told IPS. “Sexual and reproductive health services are always vulnerable to falling to the bottom of the priority list because decision-makers (male, white, heterosexual, older, affluent) are not the people who will suffer from lack of access,” she told IPS. The “Ensure universal access to sexual and repro...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tags: Africa Featured Gender Global Headlines Health Population Poverty & SDGs Regional Categories TerraViva United Nations Women's Health Coronavirus COVID-19 International Women’s Health Coalition (IWHC) United Nations Population Source Type: news