According to the latest report issued by the Family Planning 2020 global initiative, the COVID-19 pandemic can negatively affect reproductive health, by lowering the number of women and girls who have access to contraception in the poorest countries.
While in recent years sustained efforts have achieved visible results in terms of increasing the number of women and girls who have gained access to contraception, the pandemic has apparently halted this positive trend. As of July 2020, 320 million women and girls were using modern contraception in 69 of the poorest countries, representing an increase of 60 million compared to 2012.
Making contraception more accessible for women in the poorest states has averted 121 million unintended pregnancies and prevented 21 million unsafe abortions as well as 125 thousand maternal deaths.
In 2019, various countries donated US$1.5 billion to finance the Family Planning 2020 initiative which announced that it expected to enable an additional 120 million women and girls to regularly access contraception by the end of 2020. However, this number was exceeded almost threefold which clearly shows the rising demand amongst women living in developing countries. This growth is well illustrated in Africa where, in 2012, the initiative began with 40 million women using contraception and this number has now reached 66 million, a 66% increase. Since Africa had the lowest number of women with access to contraception, this represents significant progress, particularly in central and west Africa where the number doubled and the eastern and southern parts of the continent saw an increase of 70%.
The global initiative estimates that the COVID-19 pandemic may seriously threaten access to contraception for many women living in developing countries as the outbreak has seriously disrupted access to all health services, family planning included and therefore many women and girls were suddenly unable to obtain contraception.
The impact of the decreasing levels of accessible contraception may be even more serious considering that the pandemic has caused an increase in gender-based violence including sexual violence and child marriages as a result of many women and girls having to stay at home with the perpetrators due to lockdowns. Furthermore, women have been more affected by the job losses triggered by the outbreak which has made them become more dependent on men and thus more prone to the possibility of domestic violence.
According to a survey conducted by the World Health Organization in April 2020, two-thirds of the 103 countries investigated experienced a disruption in access to family planning services and the United Nations Population Fund estimates that 47 million women in 114 developing countries probably lost access to contraception.
Family Planning 2020 is a global partnership that supports the rights of women and girls to decide whether, when, and how many children they want to have. It was created by the United Nations in 2012 and cooperates with civil society, governments, donors, and international organizations to make contraception accessible for many women worldwide.
