As coronavirus infections spread throughout northern Italy, Lisa* got pregnant. In her late forties, with two children, a precarious job and poor health, she said: “Unfortunately, I realised I was pregnant unexpectedly, above all at my age.”
She decided to have an abortion. This has been legal for most of Lisa’s life, but these services are hard to access even in ‘normal’ times. Many doctors refuse to provide them and, unlike in other European countries, medical abortions (which involve taking pills) in Italy are only available at hospitals, and only up to seven weeks of pregnancy.
Lisa’s experience in February – described in a detailed letter to LAIGA, an association of Italian gynaecologists that support abortion rights, and shared with openDemocracy – was a sign of what was to come for women nationwide.
