COVID-19: Our Bodies, Our Earth, Our Future

Around the world, the COVID-19 pandemic has underscored just how urgent it is that we confront inequality. But as we address the pandemic and its multiple impacts on people and communities transnationally, what are the equity gaps that we must focus on to achieve this massive task?

One of the most globally significant inequalities is linked to the impact of the climate crisis on reproductive justice. When we focus on reproductive and environmental justice, we challenge the understanding of the role of the neoliberal state through an intersectional lens.

Neoliberal welfare laws and policies have prioritised the idea of “choice” in reproductive rights. They frame all women as a homogeneous group, without distinguishing them by class, race, sexuality or geography. As both reproductive and environmental justice frameworks suggest, this neoliberal approach is dangerous in both conception and impact, and it excludes broad sectors of women and non-binary people, including those who cannot afford health services and those who lack access to things such as basic water system provision. In the neoliberal world, only the privileged can fully exercise their reproductive and environmental rights.

Countless studies and reports have demonstrated that the climate crisis affects women’s access to sexual and reproductive health. For example, the severe water shortages in Petorca province in Chile mean that there is only 50 litres of water per day per person - just half of the 100 litres per day that the World Health Organization recommends. This shortage affects everyone, but it is particularly difficult for girls who are experiencing their first menstruation, for whom limited access to water is a source of great insecurity. It becomes difficult to maintain the most essential of hygenic practices.

Chile is one of countless places around the world where these impacts are being experienced. The World Health Organization’s report “Gender, Climate Change and Health” has shown that in countries where drought has increased barriers to water systems and sources, women and girls are suffering from exhaustion and bone injuries due to having to walk long distances to fetch heavy pots of water. In the time of pandemic, these ongoing problems become even worse: regular hand-washing is almost impossible for over 350,000 people who live in regions in Chile affected by drought caused by agriculture and extractive industries. In such situations, how can people follow the steps necessary to limit the spread of COVID-19?

More than ever before, the links between the climate crisis and women´s health are as clear as they are troubling. More troubling still is that states’ social policies rarely even consider these urgent, life-threatening issues, much less take effective steps to address them. In Chile, the air monitoring station in Quintero city has recently recorded two consecutive rises in sulphur dioxide (SO2) despite a 2019 Supreme Court ruling in favour of environmental protection and mandating a decontamination plan for the Quintero-Puchuncaví “sacrifice zone”. In August and September 2018, during the highest contamination rates, more than 1800 women and children were poisoned, and rates of miscarriage, cancers, and cardiovascular and respiratory illnesses rose, with women and children affected in particular.

The lack of effective policy and implementation in Chile is echoed in developing countries around the world, and it has become even more clear as COVID-19 spotlights the weakness of the institutional architecture that is meant to guarantee social and economic equity. In addition, a recent study from Harvard University’s School of Public Health points to links between “long-term exposure to fine particulate air pollution (PM2.5)—generated largely from fuel combustion from cars, refineries, and power plants—and the risk of death from COVID-19 in the U.S.”. Due to a lack of policies and a lack of political will, dangerous levels of exposure to PM2.5 is an everyday situation to Quintero and Puchuncaví population.

It is essential to keep the goals of social and economic equity when we work to enshrine reproductive justice in policies and practice. The majority of the communities and countries most affected by climate crisis are poor, and have high levels of gender inequality. In every humanitarian crisis, women, non-binary people and girls are often among the most vulnerable groups. Hence, all forms of crisis response must take gender and class into account, and incorporate reproductive justice response policies including service provision and support for community networks.

While formal policies are often insufficient or absent, we must also look to the policies that do exist, and ensure they are upheld. Chile’s National Standards on Fertility Regulation state that in an emergency or natural disaster, the “minimum package” that public institutions must provide to girls and women should include: oral or injectable contraceptives, emergency contraception, condoms, sanitary towels and alcohol gel; for men, male condoms must be provided free of charge. Formal regulations of this kind give NGOs the ability to advocate for provision in times of crisis, and hold the state accountable when it fails in its obligations. The Chilean NGO Miles for sexual and reproductive rights has developed a rapid online response to the impact of COVID-19 through social media which addresses the issues of reproductive justice, including contraception, comprehensive sex education, STI prevention, tackling misconceptions around menstruation, and assistance for women and non-binary people who are experiencing, or at risk of, domestic and sexual violence. These strategies, combined with calling for the State to be accountable, can make the difference.

The far-reaching and devastating impact of the pandemic is a reminder of the urgency of addressing reproductive and environmental justice. During COVID-19 and beyond, we must work to ensure that reproductive and environmental justice is built into all areas of policy response, such as health services provision in areas with limited access to water. Incorporating the reproductive justice perspective into the social policy-making process means that State responses must take into account the additional precariousness that women or non-binary people experience in a context affected by environmental crises. Bearing this aim in mind is essential. It will help us to build bridges that allow us to reclaim dignity as a fundamental human right, with community-based resources as the cornerstone.

The views expressed in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity programme, the International Inequalities Institute, or the London School of Economics and Political Science.