Protecting Access to Safe Abortion and Contraception During COVID-19

The project aims to improve access to abortion and contraceptive services in the context of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic which has threatened access to contraception and family planning. This project works to ensure that people most in need have access to sexual and reproductive health and rights services during this critical time. This is done by strengthening the abortion ecosystem to fast track and support key innovations in abortion and contraceptive care while helping low-resource countries build workarounds that help de-medicalize and streamline abortion care across the ecosystem. This includes supporting health facilities that are already under stress by the demands of the global pandemic. The project expects to benefit women who are the most marginalized including those who are disabled migrants Indigenous poor young those lacking literacy skills etc.

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) developed guidelines for Personal Protective Equipment for healthcare workers and ensure that these are realistic for low-resource settings so that they can adhere to health guidelines; (2) provided support to women and girls to access abortion through advocating for and training staff to use medication abortion including abortion self-care; (3) pharmacists are trained virtually to give the right dosage of abortion with pills and the correct information so people can safely end a pregnancy; and urging the integration of medical abortion services in telemedicine programs that offer primary care service; (4) addressed shortages of commodities and undertaking innovative data collection using mobile or online technologies to capture the impact on women’s access; and (5) work with humanitarian partners to include abortion self-care and telemedicine in the services offered to women in humanitarian settings.