Since the start of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, the family planning community has focused their attention on mitigating the devastating consequences of failing to meet women’s needs for contraception. Recent estimates by the Guttmacher Institute suggest that with even just a 10% decline in use of short-term and long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARC) across 132 low- and middle-income countries, unmet need for contraception would increase by 48.6 million women and lead to 15 million additional unintended pregnancies.1 That risk grows each day as reports come to light of clinic closures, the reduced mobile outreach services2,3 and declines in the number of clients attending even open clinics.4
To ensure women’s access to a full range of methods as well as removal services, we have seen calls from across the RH community to safeguard the integrity of existing service delivery systems and the supply chains that support them.5,6 These calls are critical and they are welcome. But in environments where these systems face pressure or cease to function altogether, different solutions are being proposed, such as those made by Nanda et al. in this issue of GHSP.7 They outline approaches such as minimizing family planning client-provider contact through use of telehealth and integration into other essential services (same-day postpartum family planning). They also consider extended use of …