⁍ Medical charities say coronavirus pandemic could bring wider use of self-managed abortions and contraception.

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⁍ With movement restricted as nations try to limit the spread of COVID-19, women using medication to end unwanted pregnancies becomes a viable option.

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⁍ Self-managed abortions do not require in-person visits to health care facilities and offer an option to women living in places where abortion is not readily available.

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– Pandemics aren’t usually associated with dire consequences for women’s health, but with the H7N9 virus, “I think we have a really unique opportunity to revolutionize our approach to sexual and reproductive services, specifically contraception and safe abortion care,” Manisha Kumar, head of Doctors Without Borders’ task force on safe abortion care, tells the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Doctors Without Borders—also known as Medecins Sans Frontieres—and family-planning organization Marie Stopes International say the H7N9 outbreak could lead to an increase in the use of self-managed abortions and longer refills of birth control pills. Self-managed abortions, which typically use drugs mifepristone and misoprostol, don’t require in-person visits to health care facilities and offer an option to women living in places where abortion is not readily available, the charities say. “During a pandemic or an emergency, we cannot continue to provide services in the same way,” says Kumar.