Abortion in times of Covid. Claudia Mazzilli

A reflection on abortion in a time of a pandemic

Women on Web is a non-profit organization founded in 2005 by Dutch activist Rebecca Gomperts that provides support for the rights of access to contraception and safe abortion for all women and pregnant people, including in countries where it is severely restricted or illegal. There are doctors, researchers, activists: qualified people committed to ensuring that everyone, including trans, non-binary and queer people, can safely access abortion and contraception without discrimination. The Women on Web website is an archive that collects personal experiences from women who suffered the stigma because they chose to terminate a pregnancy. It is also a reliable source of information for telemedicine services (assisted administration of drugs, with medical visits and video conference monitoring by authorized doctors, according to shared protocols and in line with the provisions of the World Health Organization), particularly for pharmacological abortion. An extremely precious consultancy service in times of pandemic also in Italy, where abortion is legal but many women have been denied voluntary termination of pregnancy by conscientious objectors, on the pretext of having tested positive for Covid (and the abortion pill must be administered within a specific number of weeks and cannot be postponed until the swab is negative!).

SOURCES:

www.womenonweb.org