Research shows that COVID-19 measures and legal restrictions in Poland compounded barriers to abortion access, revealing how health emergencies intersect with structural inequalities and gendered vulnerabilities.
A new study led by King's has uncovered how the COVID-19 pandemic amplified barriers to abortion access in Poland, exposing the intersection of health emergencies with structural inequalities.
The research analysed 8,577 online consultations with Women Help Women, a feminist telehealth provider, between April and December 2020. The findings show that pandemic measures - such as lockdowns and mobility restrictions - combined with financial insecurity and legal restrictions to create unprecedented challenges for those seeking abortion care.
Pregnancy during the pandemic became a cliff edge. For many, abortion was a protective act - an attempt to preserve stability for themselves and their families in the face of deepening precarity.
Dr Rishita Nandagiri, Department of Global Health and Social Medicine
The study highlights how COVID-19 disrupted personal support networks, heightened exposure to intimate partner violence, and intensified stigma. These dynamics were compounded by Poland's near-total abortion ban, announced in October 2020, which had an immediate chilling effect on access.
By situating individual experiences within broader systems of structural violence and precarity, the research moves beyond health-based framings of abortion. It underscores how neoliberal reforms and neoconservative ideologies intersected during the pandemic, shaping reproductive decision-making in gendered ways.
Published in SSM - Qualitative Research in Health, the research was a collaboration between King's College London, the London School of Economics, the University of Birmingham, and Women Help Women. It was supported by the Wellcome Trust, the Gates Foundation, and the British Academy.
"These findings highlight how structural and state violence shape access to abortion," said Dr Nandagiri. "They show why feminist networks - like Women Help Women - are not only providing essential care and solidarity to abortion-seekers, but they are also sustaining futures and rights when formal systems fail. Their work is a powerful reminder of the collective nature of feminist care and support - something that ought to be more carefully considered in policy and programming too."
