Women Globally Lack Access to Contraceptives and Abortions during Lockdown

Only 1 percent of pharmacies in northern states like Haryana and Punjab had them, 2 percent in the southern state of Tamil Nadu and 6.5 percent in the central state of Madhya Pradesh. In Delhi it was 34 percent.

Some contraceptives are still delayed by supply chain disruptions, said Chris Purdy, CEO of the DKT International social marketing organization for family planning products.

Production is back online, but shipping routes are crowded and ports clogged with back orders, he said.

Meanwhile, women’s health providers have scrambled to find solutions such as telemedicine, home deliveries of contraceptives and home-based medical abortions.

But even now, “we’re hearing everywhere that numbers are down” as public health facilities struggle because thousands of staffers have been infected with the virus, said Marion Stevens, director of the South Africa-based Sexual & Reproductive Justice Coalition.

Read also: At Least 72 Indonesian Doctors Have Died from Covid-19

Her group and others wrote to the health minister about women turned away from care.

The real global measure of lockdowns' effects will come when health ministries report annual data, experts say. But it will be incomplete.

In Haiti, the health ministry reported a 74 percent drop in births at health facilities in May compared to the same period last year.

Many women are delivering at home, but deaths there are not reported.

“Small examples can tell us a lot,” said Nondo Ejano, coordinator for the Women’s Global Network for Reproductive Rights Africa.

In Tanzania, he said, a major maternity hospital in Dar es Salaam was converted into a Covid-19 response center.

“You can ask yourself,” he said of women seeking care, “where would they go?”

At a school he visited last week in the town of Kigoma, five girls had become pregnant in the past few months. “One school. Five girls. Definitely the rate of pregnancy is up," he said.

“I feel like right now we just have a tip of the situation, and when lockdowns are lifted we will see things clearly,” said Phonsina Archane, a coordinator of the MAMA Network.

“We should prepare ourselves for that time.”

(Writer: Aniruddha Ghosal, Cara Anna) 

Source: https://www.apnews.com/4f3f067fa843de8d3d6cec5a74581fe5