COVID-19 and Immigrants' Access to Sexual and Reproductive Health Services in the United States.

Abstract

In recent months, some of the impacts of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on sexual and reproductive health (SRH) care needs, decisions and access across the globe have become evident.1,2 In the United States, the Trump administration has unjustly blamed migrants for the COVID-19 pandemic, exploiting this public health crisis to further its long-standing xenophobic agenda and prompting a de facto shutdown of the U.S. immigration system. Yet immigrant communities—particularly those of color—are among the hardest hit by this virus, largely as a result of intersecting inequities based on migration status, race and socioeconomic position, all of which contribute to unequal access to quality health care.3 The perilous health impact of COVID-19 on immigrants in the country has been highlighted by the fact that Latinx individuals, one-third of whom are immigrants,4 are becoming infected and hospitalized at substantially higher rates than are U.S.-born white individuals.5 Noticeably absent from the public discussion is an intersectional consideration of how the public health response to the pandemic may affect access to SRH care for immigrants in the United States. Immigrants represent 14% (44.4 million people) of the U.S. population and account for 17% of women of reproductive age and 23% of births.6 Although immigrants’ SRH is not currently well documented, many immigrant groups face intractable social, economic and political barriers to obtaining A cc ep te d A rti cl e