Kerigo Odada is a South African-based human rights lawyer specializing in Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in Africa at the Center for Human Rights-University of Pretoria. She currently serves as a board member of the Youth Coalition for Sexual and Reproductive Rights
The novel coronavirus, known as COVID-19 has disrupted normal life and operations around the world. It has intervened in political, social and economic activities worldwide, including access to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) services. However, for many young people, especially teenagers, COVID-19 has not introduced any new barriers to accessing SRHR services. COVID-19 has exacerbated pre-existing structural barriers that continually shorten youth SRHR worldwide. The pandemic exposes young people’s unmet need for contraceptives, which has been perpetuated over time by discriminatory policies, ignorance and stigma.
Young people, including adolescents, have unique SRHR needs. These needs were to a great extent is overlooked in many countries long before the situation worsened due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Restrictive policies and structural barriers such as requiring parental permission to access SRHR services, lack of adolescent or youth-friendly services, criminalizing consensual sexual activity between teenagers of a similar age; Denial of access to comprehensive sexuality education, among other things, characterizes the lived reality of young people. As a result, members of this social group are now at an even higher risk of unintended pregnancies, unsafe abortions, sexually transmitted infections (STDs), and complications arising from pregnancy.[1] Access to contraception is integral to ensuring an individual’s reproductive autonomy and safety, further reducing the demand that would otherwise be placed on the health care system due to the negative consequences of impotence. access to contraceptives.
COVID-19, which was declared a pandemic on March 11, 2020, has severely disrupted the global contraceptive supply chain. Vital resources have been redirected to deal with COVID-19, and in some cases, production of contraceptives has stopped altogether.[2] There have been reports that many of the Asian companies that make condoms and other contraceptives have closed as workers have been told to stay at home. Where production has resumed, contraceptive suppliers are still not operating at their normal capacity and this is expected to lead to delays in production.[3] In Malaysia for example, Karex Bhd which produces one in five condoms worldwide, announced a looming shortage of condoms after initially halting production but then restarting with only 50% of its workforce. In addition, bans on the export of medical supplies and certain raw materials to countries such as India are also expected to contribute to the contraceptive shortage.[4]
Therefore, to the extent that this pandemic is going to affect everyone, young people, especially adolescent girls, will suffer disproportionately due to the fact that they are naturally predisposed to intersectional forms of marginalization. Consequently, governments, policy makers, service providers and advocates, responding to the pandemic, need to consider the impact of the virus on young people’s SRHR. Action must be taken to ensure that young people have access to contraceptives and contraceptive services, because their lack may lead to another crisis after COVID-19.
In addition, governments need to realize that the absence of contraceptive services from most countries’ lists of essential services will disproportionately affect young people who now find themselves spending more time at home due to school closures to control the spread of COVID-19. School closures are very likely to lead to increased sexual exploitation of young people, especially teenage girls. This phenomenon was observed in 2014-2015 during the Ebola epidemic, where incidents of sexual abuse and teenage pregnancy increased exponentially.[5] Vulnerable girls turned to transactional sex for economic survival and without adequate access to contraception and safe abortion services, this severe form of child exploitation contributed to a teenage pregnancy rate about 65%.
Therefore, governments, when developing a public health response to COVID-19, need to adopt a human rights-based framework that takes into account the impact of the pandemic on the SRHR of young people. Young people, including teenagers, are entitled to its full enjoyment right to the highest attainable standard of health, including SRHR4. States must therefore invest human and capital resources in youth-friendly SRH services so that youth are assured access to these services in an environment free from all forms of discrimination and stigma. National governments are urged to include contraception as essential services during this crisis because failure to do so is likely to lead to negative SRHR outcomes for young people worldwide.
The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected a range of SRHR services available to young people, including adolescents. Therefore, just like the Secretary General of the United Nations has stated, governments must continue with unabated provision of SRHR services despite the pandemic. Contraceptive supply chains should be maintained as a priority, the need for prescriptions for some contraceptives should be removed, contraceptives should be available via telemedicine where appropriate, and national health agencies should promote youth-friendly guidelines on contraceptive use during the pandemic.[6] In addition, governments should also ensure that youth have uninterrupted access to information on SRHR. The provision of these services should be available to all young people, including adolescents, because access to health facilities, goods, services and information should be available to all people regardless of age.
[1] K Hall et al “Focusing on sexual and reproductive health and equity in the global response to COVID-19” (2020) LANCET
[2] United Nations Population Fund COVID-19: a gender lens protecting sexual and reproductive health and rights and promoting gender equality (2020) United Nations Population Fund.
[3] C Purdy “How will COVID-19 affect global access to contraceptives and what can we do about it?” DKT International March 11, 2020
[4] as above
[5] Human Rights Watch COVID-19 and Children’s Rights (2020)
[6] As above
Please note that blog posts are not peer-reviewed and do not necessarily reflect the views of SRHM as an organization.
