Global Policy Review of Abortion in the time of the Covid-19 Pandemic: Radical Abortion Care in a Pandemic Briefing Report 1, April 2021

Emma Campbell, Phyllis Ndolo, Lilian Kivuti, Krestein Mwai, Fiona K. Bloomer, Brian Chiluba, Roy Lukama

Research output: Other contribution

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Abstract

Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 global pandemic there have been a number of responses from policy makers across the world regarding the provision of abortion, the following review will incorporate comment and findings on the impact of Covid-19 on abortion services from a wide range of sources: from NGOs, academics, health researches, abortion providers, country-specific health policies, news outlets and global reports. A wide range of countries from all income levels and health disparities will be used as examples to illustrate the wide range of responses to Covid-19, some of which are highly context specific and some which can be categorised within an overarching global strategy. As one might expect, the countries with well-established progressive approaches to abortion provision made efforts to remove barriers caused by Covid-19, whilst countries where abortion was already highly restricted continued to use any opportunity to further restrict access (Baum et al., 2; Nandagiri, Coast and Strong; Senderowicz and Higgins, 147; Bateson et al., 241).
The United Nations Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (UN CEDAW) recommendations (UN Human Rights) are highlighted at the outset of this review to establish the framework for the global rights perspective, followed by the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations to outline the global health perspective and to establish the central role of WHO as the main worldwide source of emergency pandemic advice on reproductive healthcare (WHO). This will help clarify why telemedicine was positioned as one of the central emergency solutions to the global call for Covid-19 appropriate abortion measures issued by WHO and the UN (Assis and Larrea,1); where relevant examples of contexts where this has been successfully utilised will be considered.
Lastly, an overview of the contexts where the pandemic was used as an excuse for either inaction or further restrictions to abortion will be considered as well as evidence as to what, if any, measures were taken to circumnavigate these barriers by abortion seekers.
Original languageEnglish
TypeBriefing report
PublisherUlster University
Number of pages19
Place of PublicationBelfast
Publication statusPublished (in print/issue) - 2021

Keywords

  • abortion policy
  • abortion providers
  • abortion law
  • COVID-19
  • COVID-19 pandemic

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