COVID-19 and Abortion: Making Structural Violence Visible

Abstract

COVID-19 has compromised and disrupted sexual and reproductive health (SRH) across multiple dimensions: individual-level access, health systems functioning, and at the policy and governance levels. Disruptions to supply chains, lockdown measures and travel restrictions, and overburdened health systems have particularly affected abortion access and service provision. The pandemic, rather than causing new issues, has heightened and exposed existing fractures and fissures within abortion access and provision. In this viewpoint, we draw on the concept of "structural violence" to make visible the contributing causes of these ruptures and their inequitable impact among different groups.