The impact of COVID-19 on abortion access: Insights from the European Union and the United Kingdom

Government policies on abortion are a longstanding topic of heated political debates. The COVID-19 pan-demic shook health systems to the core adding further to the complexity of this topic, as imposed na-tional lockdowns and movement restrictions affected access to timely abortion for millions of women across the globe. In this paper, we examine how countries within the European Union and the United Kingdom responded to challenges brought by the COVID-19 crisis in terms of access to abortion. By com-bining information from various sources, we have explored different responses according to two dimen-sions: changes in policy and protocols, and reported difficulties in access. Our analysis shows significant differences across the observed regions and salient debates around abortion. While some countries made effort s to maint ain and facilit ate abortion care during the pandemic through the introduction or expan-sion of use of telemedicine and early medical abortion, others attempted to restrict it further. The situa-tion was also diverse in the countries where governments did not change policies or protocols. Based on our data analysis, we provide a framework that can help policy makers improve abortion access. (c) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

Government policies on abortion became more complex during the COVID-19 pandemic, with some countries making efforts to maintain and facilitate abortion care while others attempted to restrict it further. Significant differences were observed across regions in terms of changes in policy and access difficulties, highlighting debates surrounding abortion.