A demonstration in Poland, protesting against abortion while maintaining social distance. /Photo: FB Notes from Poland

*Translation: Madeline Robinson

When the coronavirus pandemic began to spiral out of control in the UK, it was eventually ruled in England that telemedical abortions were permitted to be carried out at home, at least for as long as quarantine measures remained in place. According to the new policy, women can take the necessary abortion medication at home during the first 10 weeks of pregnancy after having spoken to their doctor over the phone or via email, instead of travelling to a clinic to take the pills.

The new policy allows women to terminate unwanted pregnancies in a safe and private environment, without the need to undergo unnecessary surgical procedures. Under normal circumstances, women in England would have to travel to a clinic in order to take the mifepristone pill – an almost impossible feat during this Covid-19 pandemic, given the high number of clinics that have shut and public health advice on self-isolation.

Home abortion has been defended vehemently by activists, due to the worry that many women will feel obliged to wait longer than legal gestational limits .

As Hillary Margolis, a researcher specialised in women’s rights for Human Rights Watch, reminds us, many clinics across the continent have had no option but to close. Shortages of staff, who have either fallen ill themselves or have had to care for their loved ones, combined with the restriction of movement implied by travel bans, “means that the necessity of telemedical home abortions presents more benefits than ever.”

Scotland and Wales have also permitted home abortions after England’s change of policy. France too has extended the period of access to medical abortion from seven to nine weeks to ensure that women continue to be able to exercise their rights. Under normal circumstances, women in France can take the medication at home up to seven weeks since their last period, or nine weeks if the consultation takes place in hospital.

In Spain, in the absence of medical abortion, clinics are operating relatively normally for the moment. Since 2010, termination of a pregnancy is allowed at up to 14 weeks of gestation and is considered a strictly ‘non-deferrable’ medical service, but neither is it a subject that has been paid any particular attention during these weeks of coronavirus. The head of social intervention projects of the State Family Planning Federation, (FPFE) Gemma Castro, has said that pregnancy termination “continues to go ahead, taking the necessary precautions in light of the current situation”, such as spaced-out appointments to avoid overcrowding in waiting rooms. In areas such as Catalonia and Galicia, staff are trying to facilitate access by reducing the number of visits to clinics, thereby limiting patient contact. One example of this, suggests Castro, is the replacement of physical appointments with phone or online consultations.

The most recent abortion statistics available for Spain are from 2018, and tell us that 95,917 pregnancies were terminated in that year. Ceuta and Melilla, Spain’s autonomous territories in North Africa, registered zero cases of abortion. In these cities, there are no public hospitals or private clinics offering abortion services, and women are forced to travel to other provinces to receive treatment, a situation made even more complicated by the restrictions of movement currently in place. These restrictions to reproductive health services also disproportionately affect underprivileged women, trans people and victims of domestic violence. Another at-risk group are migrant women who find themselves in the difficult situation of having to comply with administrative regulations such as proving that they have spent over 90 days in the country. These kinds of procedures are even more complicated in coronavirus times, given the heavy police presence in the streets.

Activists and civil society organisations all over Europe are fighting to make sure that women aren’t left without necessary medical attention. In fact, some 100 collectives sent a joint letter to governments of the European Union in April, asking them to safeguard abortion access and to recognise it as an essential medical procedure during the outbreak. Adding her name to this letter, Caroline Hickson, Regional Director of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), stated that it is “extremely positive to see that some governments have taken the necessary measures to guarantee safe and accessible reproductive healthcare for women, such as the UK and France.” She remarks however, that worryingly the latter is already considering revoking the new policy during the de-escalation phase of lockdown.

Hickson also remarks that other countries have unfortunately “tried to capitalise on the crisis” to further their own political agendas. This is certainly the case in Poland, where the government has tried to restrict abortion access even further during the Covid crisis. In Romania, the majority of women that need abortion care are also being abandoned as hospitals have suspended care provision except in cases of emergency.

Poland already has one of the strictest abortion laws in Europe. There, women are only permitted to terminate abortions in cases of foetal abnormalities, rape, incest, or in the case of risk to the mother’s health. New legislation, recently approved by a preliminary vote in Parliament, seeks to ban abortions in cases of foetal anomalies or incurable illness. According to statistics from the Ministry of Health, 95% of abortions to date were carried out due to foetal anomalies or illness.

The decision to try and block abortion access was not well received by hundreds of women in Poland, who despite social distancing measures to restrict the spread of coronavirus, went out to protest in the only way they could: by climbing onto cars, holding up placards, blaring horns and even partially blocking some major roundabouts in the capital, Warsaw.

As well as Poland, abortion is severely restricted or still illegal in six other countires of the European Union. In Andorra, Malta and San Marino for example, abortion is not permitted under any circumstances. In Liechtenstein it is only permitted in cases of rape or in case of risk to the mother’s life or health. Monaco only allows abortion if the mother is at any kind of risk.

Other nations also deserve special attention, given that women are often not attended to in time because of long administrative procedures or because they are ‘left to one side’ due to a doctor’s personal opinions on the matter. Hickson states that this is “a particularly big problem in Italy and Croatia”.

Pregnant women often feel obliged to travel to foreign countries for abortions or to obtain the requisite medicine for home abortion. The impact of these issues has only been exacerbated in the current climate, above all considering that many borders have been closed until further notice. As Hickson says, the pandemic should not be used as an excuse to force women to make decisions concerning their own reproductive and health rights. The activist concludes, “European countries should continue to protect women and girls”, now and always.

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