WGNRR statement on the U.S. administration’s attempt to roll back SRHR

The COVID-19 pandemic should not be used as an opportunity by any one country’s sitting administration to roll back on the rights women around the world have sought for decades.

The Women’s Global Network for Reproductive Rights is one of many SRHR and feminist organizations condemning Acting USAID Administrator John Barsa’s letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres demanding that the United Nations remove reference to “sexual and reproductive health” from the Global Humanitarian Response Plan’s (HRP) guidance on COVID-19. 

We join the global feminist movement in opposing Barsa’s move against SRHR and in expressing support for the global leadership of the UN and the World Health Organization during the COVID-19 pandemic. We affirm the UN’s original position in the HRP that access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services is essential and must be prioritized. As emerging evidence from numerous countries show that demand for SRH services continues and is even increasing amid the pandemic, we must remain unequivocally committed to ensuring that sexual and reproductive health is part of COVID-19 responses globally.

USAID’s letter confirms the fears of many SRHR and women’s organizations that the pandemic, which has already harmed provision of SRH information and services by shifting priorities and resources of governments and humanitarian actors responding to it, would also be used by certain actors and groups as an opportunity to abrogate their responsibility towards fulfilling hard-fought sexual and reproductive rights.

More than ever, we need to defend SRHR and oppose opportunistic attempts to roll back women’s rights. As we celebrate the International Day of Action for Women’s Health, we enjoin everyone to sustain the message of the May 28 campaign by continuing to call on governments and the international community to ensure a rights-based, just, and sustainable response to COVID-19 beyond May 28.