The reproductive health fall-out of a global pandemic

Abstract

Social media outlets are inundated with quips about the baby boom coming nine months after the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s not that funny. Or that simple. The global spread of the coronavirus has resulted in unprecedented containment measures. Around the world, businesses and schools are closed; hospital services are reduced and redir- ected to provide only emergency care; global aid and development agencies have repatriated their employees. These are appropriate responses to a rapidly evolving pandemic, but pose serious risks for women and adolescent girls everywhere. Our vulnerable populations are now becoming further isolated from much needed reproductive health care. Unplanned and risky pregnancies will increase as a result of this pandemic. In low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) like Kenya, where we have a direct clinical and teaching relationship through AMPATH (the Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare), the unmet family planning need is already at least 18%, as reported by the Kenya Data Health System (KDHS, 2014). This does not accurately reflect the much higher unmet need among adolescent girls, women within certain tribes, in rural areas and with low educational and socioeconomic status, who are underrepresented in national statistics.