because of economic pressures because of
the threat to many people's health and
in many other ways this pandemic has of
course changed many many aspects of
everyone's lives we're going to look now
at how it's affected women in particular
this article in The Guardian
has gone as far as to declare the
pandemic is destroying women's rights
and whilst that might be an extreme way
of describing it there's an increasingly
increasing body of evidence supporting
the idea that as a group women are being
particularly adversely affected first
there's domestic violence the UN is
called the increase in domestic violence
globally the shadow' pandemic it says
across the world domestic violence
helplines and shelters are reporting
rising calls for help
professionally women seem to be a
disadvantage to this article in the
science journal nature says preliminary
data suggests that across disciplines
women's publishing rate has fallen
relative to men's amid the pandemic
whilst analysis of households with two
opposite gender parents from the
Institute of Fiscal Studies in the UK
has suggested that compared to fathers
mothers are more likely to have quit or
lost their job or to have been
furloughed they're also spending less
time on paid work but more time on
household responsibilities a separate
study from the University of Sheffield
found that the proportion of mothers
responsible for most of a family's child
care increased from 27 percent to 45
percent during lockdown medically -
there are some issues that affect women
disproportionately for example women
across Europe are being denied abortions
because of the pandemic the World Health
Organization classifies abortion as
essential health care but the BBC has
found hospitals that have stopped
performing the procedure during the
pandemic and the BBC's gene Mackenzie
has been looking at that issue as the
pandemic hit hospitals across the world
have been forced to suspend
non-emergency surgeries but in Romania
nearly all of them stopped abortions
this is a phone call made to hospital
at the height of the crisis only 11 out
of the 280 hospitals in Romania were
offering the procedure they are trying
to use the pandemic as an excuse lots of
women especially the ones that are
coming from vulnerable backgrounds that
are living in poverty cannot access an
abortion this is how desperate the
situation is
my boyfriend tricked me he pretending he
was using a condom I can't afford to
have a child Daria couldn't find a
single doctor to give her an abortion so
I was recommended someone who was
retired who say that I could have an
abortion at their home I went to their
apartment they they had this special
room and in the bed I was very afraid he
was done using a vacuum which I wasn't
expecting it's a similar story in
countries across Europe we've spoken to
women in Italy Croatia and Poland who
have all been unable to get treatment in
these countries it was already difficult
for women to get an abortion and this
crisis has just put more obstacles in
their way there are a few clinics
offering the procedure now and of course
women have been unable to travel to seek
out alternatives in Slovakia where there
have been recent attempts to restrict
abortion politicians have warned women
against having the procedure very
important people in health care system
in Slovakia said that this is not acute
and urgent medicine and that this is not
the right time for women to undergo
abortion how do you respond to that as a
clinician this is not true from the
medical point of view are you
recommending women not to have abortions
during this time no not at all I just
say if it's too dangerous from
epidemiology point of view and you can
wait of course you can wait I didn't say
don't go for it
human rights organizations are now
urging all governments in Europe to make
sure abortions are safely available
Daria is still worrying about
her backstreet procedure I'm still
bleeding
I don't think I'm badly injured but I'm
worried there might be something wrong
and there's concern that in some places
access to abortion may never return to
what it was before this pandemic Jim
McKenzie BBC News
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