The coronavirus pandemic is disrupting services across the globe, including reproductive health care access. Both the World Health Organization and the United Nations highlighted the importance of ensuring sexual and reproductive health access in response to the pandemic. But the Trump administration has gone a different way, demanding that the U.N. remove abortion access language from its pandemic response plan.
In March, the U.N. launched its $2 billion global humanitarian response plan to the coronavirus pandemic. The plan acknowledges that the pandemic will disrupt regular services for the general population, including “sexual and reproductive health services, mental health and psychosocial support, and overall management of non-communicable diseases.” As a result, the U.N. names one of its objectives as ensuring the continuity of “essential services,” including reproductive health care.