Now is the time: a call for increased access to contraception and safe abortion care during the COVID-19 pandemic

During this pandemic, healthcare systems face difficult decisions about how to best adapt health services to ensure that increasingly Summary box► The COVID-19 pandemic has begun to severely limit access to sexual and reproductive healthcare, including contraception and safe abortion care (SAC), which have historically not been regarded as essential health services.► Shutdown or delays of contraception and SAC during COVID-19 will disproportionately impact the most vulnerable populations, including women and girls in low-income and middle-income countries, and lead to considerable and preventable death and lifelong disability.► Médecins Sans Frontières calls on the global health community to strengthen access to contraception and SAC for populations everywhere, and especially in poor and crisis settings, by engaging with women and their communities to develop self-managed models of care.