Expect 7 million unplanned pregnancies if lockdown persists

An estimated seven million unintended pregnancies will be added globally for every six months of lockdown, United Nations Population Fund’s (UNFPA) Executive Director, Natalia Kanem has said.

About 50 million other women will lose access to contraceptives in the same period, she said during a webinar on Gender Justice in Global Covid-19 Response organised by Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.

She said the Covid-19 pandemic has worked against sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) of women and girls despite these rights “permeating every aspect of existence.”

She noted of the epidemic taking away girls’ right to education stating that “girls want to be educated and not to be married.”

Joint United Nations Program on HIV/Aids’ (UNAids) Executive Director, Winnie Byanyima who was also among the panellists said Covid-19 is a colliding epidemic with HIV and Aids.

She identified female sexual workers as vulnerable women hit hardest by the pandemic, raising their risks to not just hunger but also HIV and Aids.

SEX WORK

“Sex work is criminalised in almost every part of the world,” she noted.

She added: “Criminalisation of sex work also means they cannot access services provided by the government to mitigate the impacts of the lockdown. For example, most schemes would require proof of the lost employment and because sex work is criminalised, they cannot provide any papers as proof of employment.”

She urged governments to recognise their human rights, especially on health as they are vulnerable to HIV and Aids.

UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said they were lobbying and advocating for passage of legislations on child marriage as a priority to save many girls at risk of forced marriages.

“We are pushing for the government to prioritise passing legislations on child marriages as some girls are unlikely to return to school because they have been snatched (for early marriages),” she noted.

In response to US’ administration demand to exclude abortion as an essential service in the Covid-19 UN global humanitarian response plan, the UN bodies’ executives expressed dismay and disappointment.

ABORTION

Ms Byanyima exemplified her shock: “My 12-year-old cousin died due to abortion. She was out in the field looking after the cattle where she was either raped or had sex. (She got pregnant) and she was so terrified and wanted to have an abortion but it didn’t work.”

“I don’t understand how anyone would make a woman’s right to control her body any less important to her right to education, I don’t get it… I am destabilised.”

Ms Ngcuka said:  “Just to take away all the options women have in 2020 is shocking.”

“The women’s body is the most regulated part of human species. Can you imagine us regulating men’s private parts? And men are regulating our bodies. We have to use all methods at our disposal not to allow that to be normalised.”

 “There is a variety of understanding of the essence of sexual and even saying sex out loud in some countries is not going to get you to persuade anyone or anything,” said UNFPA’s Ms Kanem.