Access to safe abortion is a reproductive rights and justice issue, and it is imperative that safe abortion access during and after the COVID‐19 pandemic is a reality for all. India imposed a lockdown in March 2020 to contain the spread of the pandemic. Limited mobility, lack of clarity about abortion as an essential service and abortion as a service permitted through telemedicine, shut down of services providing long‐acting and permanent methods of contraception, and changes to decision‐making about birthing and parenting during a pandemic are factors that may impact the demand for abortion during and after the lockdown. Shortage of raw materials and limited inter‐ and intra‐ state transport of drugs may result in breakages in the supply of medication abortion. Given that 73 percent of abortions in India in 2015 occurred outside of health facilities, the pandemic may have several implications on the need for evidence‐based information and quality abortion services, as well as if and how medication abortion is accessed in India, and what self‐managed abortion looks like in the COVID‐19 era. We discuss factors contributing to reduced access to abortion, changes in abortion need, and suggest strategies to respond to an increased demand for abortion in India.

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在COVID-19期间和之后为印度增加的堕胎准入做准备：挑战和策略

安全堕胎是生殖权利和正义问题，在COVID-19大流行期间和之后，安全堕胎至关重要。印度于2020年3月实施了封锁，以遏制大流行的蔓延。流动性有限，对将流产作为一项基本服务以及通过远程医疗允许流产作为一项服务缺乏明确性，关闭提供长效和永久避孕方法的服务以及在大流行期间改变有关生育和育儿的决策的因素这可能会影响锁定期间和锁定之后对堕胎的需求。原料短缺以及有限的州际和州内药物运输可能会导致药物流产供应中断。鉴于2015年印度73％的人工流产发生在医疗机构之外，因此该大流行可能对基于证据的信息和优质的人工流产服务的需求产生了一些影响，以及印度是否以及如何获得药物流产，以及自我管理的流产看起来像COVID-19时代。我们讨论了导致堕胎机会减少，堕胎需求变化的因素，并提出了应对印度堕胎需求增加的策略。