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COVID-19: Fueling the War on Reproductive Healthcare

Posted on by mdonahue2

by Meghan Donahue

COVID-19 has impacted just about every facet of our lives. Work and school went remote, leisure activities were suspended, and delivery became the new normal. Healthcare has also been a point of much discussion in the last several months, largely as it relates to the difficulties surrounding the diagnosis and treatment of the virus itself. Under the surface, however, a much darker storm has been brewing. Across the United States, government leaders have been attempting to use restrictions necessitated by the pandemic to further their own anti-choice agendas.

Reproductive healthcare, and more specifically abortion, is already a contentious political issue with strong, uncompromising voices on both sides. Lawmakers in a number of states have taken actions in the last several years to outlaw or effectively outlaw abortion, efforts that have produced mixed results. For example, Louisiana passed a law in 2014 that required abortion providers to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital [3]. Due to the extremely difficult nature of obtaining such privileges, the law would have effectively banned abortion in the state. Lawmakers claimed that the law was meant to protect women, though critics argue that by limiting access to abortion, the law actually put women in more danger, possibly forcing them to try to terminate unwanted pregnancies at home. The law was struck down by the United States Supreme Court in 2020 because it imposed an undue burden on women seeking abortions [4].

COVID-19 has given anti-choice politicians yet another opportunity to push for such measures; many have tried to effectively ban abortion during the pandemic under the guise of “public health.” Some claim that accessing abortion and other reproductive and sexual health services is dangerous due to the threat of virus transmission. Others instead claim that such services are “nonessential,” and therefore should not be prioritized or kept available during such an emergency [1]. In fact, as of May 2020, 11 U.S. states had tried to limit women’s access to abortion by deeming it to be nonessential [2]. This is in direct contradiction to the guidance from experts, including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, that states that abortion “remains an essential and time‐sensitive” even during a pandemic [2].

Pandemic or not, the goal of these measures is the same: to prevent those with uteruses from being able to exercise their rights to choice and bodily autonomy. COVID-19 is just another in a long list of excuses for politicians to do so.

Works Cited

[1] Bayefsky, Michelle J., et al. “Abortion during the Covid-19 Pandemic — Ensuring Access to an Essential Health Service.” New England Journal of Medicine, vol. 382, no. 19, May 2020, DOI:10.1056/NEJMp2008006. Accessed 9 Aug. 2020.

[2] Jones, Rachel K., et al. “COVID‐19 Abortion Bans and Their Implications for Public Health.” Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, vol. 52, no. 2, 2020, pp. 65-68. Academic Search Complete, DOI:10.1363/psrh.12139. Accessed 5 Aug. 2020.

[3] Roberts, S.C.M, et al. “Implications for Women of Louisiana’s Law Requiring Abortion Providers to Have Hospital Admitting Privileges.” Contraception, vol. 91, no. 5, May 2015, pp. 368-72. Academic Search Complete, doi:10.1016/j.contraception.2015.02.001. Accessed 8 Aug. 2020.

[4] Wiliams, Pete. “Supreme Court, in 5-4 ruling, Strikes Down Restrictive Louisiana Abortion Law.” NBC News, 29 June 2020, www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-strikes-down-restrictive-louisiana-abortion-law-n1231392. Accessed 9 Aug. 2020.

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  1. One social media post that I have come across in the last few months, in the form of art, was a drawing of a face mask, and a uterus drawing right next to it. Under the mask it said the words “My body, my choice” and under the uterus it said “Your body, my choice.” This struck me in such a different way because it highlights the hypocrisy that exists in the US of people demanding their own rights, yet refusing to give it to certain people based on race, gender, sexuality etc. It also demonstrates how the male patriarchy is still very much idealized in this country, intentional or not.

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