Resources

Now is when standing by our values matters most. We must treat all people with dignity and humanity, not despite, but because we are faced with multiple crises caused by war, inflation, and a hard post-pandemic recovery. In 2021, European countries struggled to keep their promises to uphold sexual and reproductive freedom for all. They managed to maintain their overall support to sexual and reproductive health & rights worldwide by investing 2.780 billion euros. This includes 1.385 billion euros allocated to sexual health and family planning, which means at least 10.5 million women and couples had access to contraceptive care. But much more is needed. More investment and better policies around sexual and reproductive health will have a profound impact on people’s futures. It will give options to those of us without them. Which in turn will lead more people to thrive, thus creating safer, more just and prosperous communities. We have a shared moral responsibility to respond to global challenges in an equitable manner. In our most recent report, we are looking at 2021 funding data and 2022 political stances adopted by thirteen European governments and the EU institutions with regards to sexual and reproductive health and rights. Watch our video to get an overview of the findings and download the below resources for more information.

Our #BecauseSheCounts social media campaign asks decision-makers to put universal health care, human rights and equality at the core of all public policy and funding decision, amid the pandemic and always. To join our campaign, share our #BecauseSheCounts messages and visuals and tag us @C2030Europe! Ask your governments to continue to prove that solidarity goes beyond borders and should not be limited to European Union countries. Find our social media campaign package here.

The COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences have endangered everyone’s health. But in almost all European countries, women have been particularly affected by a significant restriction in access to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) care, and abortion care in particular. Despite the difficulties they encountered, IPPF EN members and partners stepped up to protect people’s reproductive safety from the very start of the crisis. As healthcare providers, they innovated and adapted their own service-delivery models to continue to provide care to the most vulnerable. As advocates, they pushed their governments to take the necessary policy and legislative measures to guarantee access to care for all. 95% of our members reported having carried out advocacy during the pandemic. This factsheet highlights the crucial role IPPF EN members and partners played in the early months of the pandemic, both as healthcare providers and as advocates.

COVID-19 is endangering the sexual and reproductive health and safety of women and girls and vulnerable people across Europe. They are left without access to essential medical services such as contraception and abortion care, HIV and STI testing and reproductive cancer screenings, and respectful maternal healthcare. The huge reduction in these services is putting lives, health and wellbeing at risk, particularly those of vulnerable groups whose only access may be through subsidised services provided by civil society. Gender-based violence has surged, with lockdown making it harder to provide support and shelter to women desperately in need of it. This report has been compiled by IPPF EN and EPF from surveys that were conducted with their respective stakeholders on the impact of COVID-19 on the sexual and reproductive health and rights of people, particularly women and girls, in Europe, and on Europe’s international cooperation on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR).  The content of the report derives from what stakeholders in different countries reported as the situation in their country at the time of reporting – early April - and thus aims to provide an overall ‘snapshot in time’ of what was clearly already a significant effect of the pandemic on SRHR. However, the situation is highly dynamic and evolving daily, so be aware some of the situations reported may already have changed. We will be producing new information as data comes in, but in the meantime, we hope you find this a useful overview of the current context.