A new report highlights the impact the Covid-19 pandemic has had on women in the United States.
Covid-19 has upended every aspect of our lives, in ways both seen and unseen. Each day, we witness the damaging effects of the pandemic on our economies and healthcare systems, as businesses shut down and hospitals struggle to meet an overwhelming demand for intensive care services. But inside homes across the country, families are bearing witness to another impact of the epidemic, its effect on the sexual and reproductive health of women.
A new report from the Guttmacher Institute released this week is shining first light on the plight of women in America in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. The institute surveyed 2,009 women over a two week period in late April and early May, asking questions related to their health, their physical and emotional safety, and their desire to have children. The responses give us a better understanding of the true scope of the impact of Covid-19 and a sense of the ripple effects that we will be navigating over generations to come.
One of the most significant findings is that, because of the pandemic, one third of women surveyed now say they want to delay having children or they want fewer children overall. It has long been understood that a woman’s desire to have children is shaped in large part by the broader socioeconomic context in which she lives and the increase in financial and job-related worries created by today’s pandemic is already having an impact.
