{"id":14143,"date":"2020-06-08T07:46:34","date_gmt":"2020-06-08T07:46:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yourchennai.com\/?p=14143"},"modified":"2020-06-08T07:46:34","modified_gmt":"2020-06-08T07:46:34","slug":"covid-19-compromised-access-to-1-85-million-abortions-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yourchennai.com\/index.php\/2020\/06\/08\/covid-19-compromised-access-to-1-85-million-abortions-study\/","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19 Compromised Access to 1.85 Million Abortions: Study"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A\u00a0recent study conducted by Ipas Development Foundation (IDF) revealed that access to around\u00a01.85 million abortions was compromised due to the restrictions imposed in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. Abortion access for these 1.85 million women was compromised at all points of care, including public and private sector facilities and chemist outlets.<\/p>\n

Mr. Vinoj Manning, CEO, Ipas Development Foundation said,<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cAs COVID-19 turned into a pandemic, everyone\u2019s complete attention and effort went to the containment of the virus, which quite naturally pushed a lot of health conditions and their management, including safe abortion, to the backseat. Majority of public health facilities and their staff are now focused on COVID-19 treatments and closures of private health facilities have\u00a0compromised the access to\u00a0safe\u00a0abortions, which is a time-sensitive procedure.\u00a0The study was conducted\u00a0to get a clearer\u00a0picture\u00a0of how COVID-19 restrictions have affected women seeking safe abortion services and what are the areas that will need focused efforts in the days to come.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The study assesses the near-term impact of COVID-19 on abortion access in India in the first three months following the commencement of the lockdown (25 March 2020 to 24 June 2020). The model\u00a0of the study strives to\u00a0quantify\u00a0the reduced access to abortions across three different points of care\u00a0\u2013public health facilities,\u00a0private health facilities, and\u00a0chemist outlets.<\/p>\n

Speaking on the methodology, Dr. Sushanta Kumar Banerjee from Ipas Development Foundation said,<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cWe conducted telephonic surveys and consulted with several experts from FOGSI leadership and social marketing organizations like PSI India Private Limited.\u00a0After careful analysis of the data received from them, we\u00a0have concluded\u00a0that\u00a0of the 3.9 million abortions that would have taken place in\u00a03 months, access to\u00a0around 1.85 million was compromised due to COVID-19 restrictions.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\"IpasThe study estimates that access to abortion was highly compromised during lockdown 1 & 2 (March 25 – May 3, 2020) in which around 59% of women seeking an abortion could not access the services. However, with the un-lock phase or the recovery period as mentioned in the study starting on 1St<\/sup> June, the situation is expected to improve – with 33% abortions being compromised in 24 days.<\/p>\n

A huge number of women could not access safe abortion services during the lockdown, therefore it is extremely important that the healthcare system, public & private, is prepared to meet the needs of these women. To facilitate the process Ipas Development Foundation has issued some initial recommendations which include: Rapid mapping of facilities for first and second trimester abortions, assessing facilities\u2019 preparedness especially for second-trimester abortions, improving referral linkage and spread the word about the availability of the service, streamlining the supply chain for Medical Abortion drugs, and lastly including mechanisms to offset additional travel and out of pocket expenditures.<\/p>\n

Ipas Development Foundation will be holding consultations with other partners and key stakeholders to facilitate meaningful collaborations to ensure access to safe abortions and ensure that no woman suffers long-term harm to her health due to lack of services.<\/p>\n

As Vinoj Manning sums it up – \u201cThe most important take away of the study is not just the fact that 1.85 million women and girls who needed an abortion couldn’t get it in the last three months.\u00a0 What is even more important is that this study highlights the need for a specially designed and integrated recovery plan for improving abortion services at facilities. Many of these 1.85 million women will be coming into public and private hospitals seeking second trimester abortions and we should not be turning them away a second time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A\u00a0recent study conducted by Ipas Development Foundation (IDF) revealed that access to around\u00a01.85 million abortions was compromised due to the restrictions imposed in response<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14144,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,7],"tags":[18655,15212,18656,16142,18657],"class_list":["post-14143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-hospital-daycare","category-lifestyle-health-hotel-leisure-food-fashion","tag-abortions","tag-covid-19","tag-ipas-development-foundation","tag-outbreak","tag-private-hospitals"],"views":697,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/yourchennai.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Ipas-Development-Foundation-Logo.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yourchennai.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yourchennai.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yourchennai.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yourchennai.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yourchennai.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14143"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/yourchennai.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14145,"href":"https:\/\/yourchennai.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14143\/revisions\/14145"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yourchennai.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yourchennai.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yourchennai.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yourchennai.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}