The impact of COVID-19 on safe abortion access in Africa: An analysis through a framework of reproductive justice and lens of structural violence

• Main Authors: Amanda Tiew (Author), Lucía Berro Pizzarossa (Author), Ibtehal Jastaniah (Author), Ruvani T. Jayaweera (Author)
• Format: Book
• Published: Frontiers Media S.A., 2022-09-01T00:00:00Z.
• Subjects: article
• Online Access: Connect to this object online.
• Notes: 2673-5059; 10.3389/fgwh.2022.958710
• Keywords: COVID-19; abortion; Sub-Saharan Africa; reproductive justice; structural violence; self-managed abortion; Gynecology and obstetrics; RG1-991; Women. Feminism; HQ1101-2030.7
• Source: Frontiers in Global Women's Health, Vol 3 (2022)

The SARS-CoV-2 virus causing the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) global pandemic heightened restrictions on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), especially concerning safe abortion access. The African region has been particularly susceptible to the impact of COVID-19 on sexual and reproductive health services. Using a framework of reproductive justice, we interviewed key informants from the Mobilizing Action around Medication Abortion (MAMA) Network regarding the impacts of structural violence and COVID-19 on SRHR programming in Africa, particularly programming on self-managed abortion. We identified themes of lacking infrastructures of support, emergent marginality, and neocolonial funding environments as facets of structural violence within the context of the MAMA Network, as heightened by the COVID-19 global pandemic.