The COVID-19 pandemic has created challenges for women seeking family planning services. MOMENTUM Country and Global Leadership project staff recently co-authored the journal article Opportunities and Challenges of Delivering Postabortion Care and Postpartum Family Planning During the COVID-19 Pandemic, which was published by Global Health: Science and Practice (October 2020).

In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic and measures to minimize its risk, the authors urged decision-makers, including health care providers and policymakers, to take advantage of women’s contact with the health care system during pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum, and postabortion to provide family planning education, care, and supplies. Meeting women’s family planning needs is an investment against higher health system burdens in the future and will ultimately save lives and improve livelihoods.

The article provides a list of recommendations for integrating postabortion and postpartum family planning for women seeking care and infant immunization services, including COVID-19 specific modifications that may be required.

To encourage research and documentation, the article also includes a table on gaps in knowledge around COVID-19’s and post-abortion care and postpartum family planning, including questions about access to care and communications about post-abortion care and postnatal family planning during the pandemic.

Readers can also explore the scenarios presented in the article in this interactive table created by Knowledge Success, or read a more informal conversation with some of the journal co-authors.