In order to reduce the harms associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, Canada and other countries worldwide have relied heavily upon physical distancing restrictions as a key public health strategy. However, physical distancing mandates, namely reducing time spent outside of the home, have created a variety of unintended secondary impacts beyond disruption of COVID-19 transmission.
The World Health Organization and other authorities are now turning their attention to these secondary consequences of restricting peoples’ daily routines to private domains (1). In particular, United Nations documents have raised concerns that worldwide COVID-19 physical distancing restrictions might dramatically amplify global patterns of domestic violence against women and girls. Global patterns in trans and non-binary populations are not as well studied but are estimated to be similar (2–5).
This concern is grounded in crime theory in that isolation breeds an environment where there is less opportunity for a crime to be observed, and therefore could increase the risk of its occurence (6–8). Increases in patterns of both male violent crime perpetration and female violent crime victimization (comprised primarily of intimate partner violence episodes) in private settings following physical distancing restrictions have been suggested in a number of recent scientific publications and media stories (9–14).
Although the majority of reported cases of intimate partner violence involve a male perpetrator and female victim, intimate partner violence can be experienced or perpetrated by any person regardless of how they identify.
Physical distancing and isolating in place are not safe practices for those who experience intimate partner violence or other forms of violence at home (15,16). Violence against womxn, especially intimate partner violence, has significant impacts on health; it can result in severe physical, mental, sexual, and reproductive health problems, including sexually transmitted infections and unplanned pregnancies (17).
The United Nations Population Fund has reported that for every three months that physical distancing measures continue, it is expected that there will be an additional 15 million cases of gender-based violence and 13 million womxn will not be able to access contraception, thus resulting in 325,000 unintended pregnancies globally (16).
Access to contraception during COVID-19 has been limited due to a number of factors including reduced capacity and hours of walk-in clinics, physician offices, and pharmacies, fear of visiting medical facilities, reduced access to or perceived safety of public transportation, a reliance on technology to be seen by providers only offering telemedicine appointments, depleted contraception stock at pharmacies, and financial stresses.
For the many people who are facing unemployment, loss of health insurance, and reduced income, affording contraception is now weighed against the costs of other basic needs like food and shelter. Additionally, changes in pharmacy dispensing procedures from 90-day to 30-day supplies due to dwindling stock could mean tripling of the usual dispensing fee (18). The impacts of the COVID-19-related increase in violent crime against womxn and additional barriers to accessing contraception are heightened in British Columbia where there is an existing lack of universal access to contraception.
Although access to contraception is deemed a basic human right, contraception for many individuals in British Columbia is not accessible (19).
In 2016, one in five Canadian womxn had an unplanned pregnancy (20), and as many as 61% of Canadian womxn report having had an unplanned pregnancy in their lifetime (21). Prior to COVID-19, cost of contraception was a significant barrier inhibiting access, and cost is playing an even larger role now (22). Intra-uterine devices (IUDs) can cost as much as $380, hormone injections $180 per year, and oral contraceptive pills upwards of $20 monthly (23). Furthermore, the most reliable contraceptive methods, IUDs and other long-acting reversible contraceptives, have the highest upfront costs, which acts as an additional barrier and results in reliance on less effective methods (20).
While it is not believed that the costs associated with the contraceptive products themselves have increased during COVID-19, current economic stresses make contraception inaccessible for many. While this can be said for all womxn, trans men, and non-binary individuals with uteruses, it is of particular relevance for those experiencing violence. Both violence against womxn and pregnancy rates have been observed to increase with crisis isolation, and intimate partner violence is known to increase when womxn are pregnant (24–27).
COVID-19 physical distancing restrictions have led to a shift in daily activities from the public to the private sphere thus increasing the opportunity for violence and decreasing the potential for intervention by others. The rise in violent crime against womxn is associated with an elevated risk of unintended pregnancy, especially in light of challenges accessing contraception.
Financial hardships as a result of the pandemic is just one of the barriers being faced, but one that could be diminished by universal access to contraception. In addition to limiting access to contraceptives, COVID-19 has impacted access to services including abortion care and sexually transmitted infection testing as a result of physical distancing and other public health protocols, business closures, changing hospital priorities, lab capacity, and condom shortages (28,29).
When taken together, all of these factors combine to have significant impacts on health. Ultimately, recognizing the unintended secondary impacts of public health physical distancing protocols, including shifts in the volume and distribution of crime and criminal victimization, is critically important to guide evidence-based public health and public safety interventions to mitigate harms, especially if such crime and victimization burdens fall upon already vulnerable populations and have significant implications on health.
A special thanks to Erin Slade for their help in the creation of this article.
References:
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United Nations Population Fund. Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Pandemic UNFPA Global Reponse Plan. New York, NY; 2020. https://www.unfpa.org/resources/coronavirus-disease-covid-19-pandemic-unfpa-global-response-plan.
United Nations Population Fund. COVID-19: A Gender Lens. New York, NY; 2020. https://www.unfpa.org/resources/covid-19-gender-lens.
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