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How Trump, COVID-19 endanger sexual, reproductive health rights
Sexual and reproductive health is and has always been a critical part of any humanitarian response. Failing to provide SRH services will have a devastating impact on the lives of millions of people in lower-middle income countries, including Indonesia.
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Illustration. (Shutterstock/File)
U
nited States President Donald Trump, the COVID-19 pandemic, and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) are a dangerous combination.
Amid the worldwide surge in COVID-19 cases, the Trump administration urged the removal of any references to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and related services from the United Nations’ COVID-19 Global Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP).
The suggestion shocked the global health community, which has regarded the US a champion in advancing SRHR since it demonstrated its strong commitment to the issue in 1994 at the first International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo.
In a letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres in mid-May, acting administrator John Barsa of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) called on the UN to “stay focused on life-saving interventions” and exclude abortion as “essential health care”, all the while emphasizing the country’s US$650.7 million contribution to the pandemic response.
Sexual and reproductive health is and has always been a critical part of any humanitarian response. Failing to provide SRH services will have a devastating impact on the lives of millions of people in lower-middle income countries, including Indonesia.
Global public health experts and women’s rights activists condemned the US attempt, stressing that SRH went beyond abortion services and also covered HIV/AIDS testing, cancer screening, child marriage awareness and education and human trafficking.
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), together with Avenir Health, Johns Hopkins University (USA) and Victoria University (Australia), studied the impacts of the pandemic on reproductive health services and situations. The study projected that some 47 million women in 114 low and middle income countries would be unable to use modern contraceptives if the average COVID-19-related disruption (lockdown) lasted six months.
