AUTHOR=Tiew Amanda , Berro Pizzarossa Lucía , Jastaniah Ibtehal , Jayaweera Ruvani T. TITLE=The impact of COVID-19 on safe abortion access in Africa: An analysis through a framework of reproductive justice and lens of structural violence JOURNAL=Frontiers in Global Women's Health VOLUME=3 YEAR=2022 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/global-womens-health/articles/10.3389/fgwh.2022.958710 DOI=10.3389/fgwh.2022.958710 ISSN=2673-5059 ABSTRACT=

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.