Delays in being able to get contraception and abortions can wreck women’s lives. It’s time women ignored the stigma and started complaining more loudly, writes Nell Frizzell in the Guardian.
"When a friend recently told me that there was a 10-week waiting list to have a copper coil fitted, my shock turned quickly into anger. Ten weeks is a hell of a long time to wait for adequate, hormone-free, affordable contraception.
We are experiencing a quiet crisis in contraceptive care in this country.
According to a report by the Advisory Group on Contraception: “Going into lockdown, services had faced years of budget cuts by the government, leading to an 18% decrease in real-terms contraception spend since 2015.”
The same report points out that there has also been a huge reduction in sites commissioned to deliver contraception (26% of local authorities cut sites in 2018-2019), meaning people are having to travel further to get the medical help they need, simply not to have an unplanned, unwanted, unaffordable or unsafe pregnancy.
Unfortunately, the stigma still attached to contraception and reproductive health means people are less willing to complain publicly about the huge waiting times, the travel costs and the difficulty they face in accessing contraception and abortion. Subtly and overtly, we are told that this is our lot and we must bear it.
Source: The Guardian, 9 March 2022
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