Perspectives from the pandemic epicenter: Sexual and reproductive health of immigrant women in New York City

Abstract

AbstractContextThe United States' response to COVID‐19 created a policy, economic, and healthcare provision environment that had implications for the sexual and reproductive health (SRH) of racialized and minoritized communities. Perspectives from heterogenous immigrant communities in New York City, the pandemic epicenter in the United States (US), provides a glimpse into how restrictive social policy environments shape contraception, abortion, pregnancy preferences, and other aspects of SRH for marginalized immigrant communities.MethodsWe conducted in‐depth interviews in 2020 and 2021 with 44 cisgender immigrant women from different national origins and 19 direct service providers for immigrant communities in New York City to explore how immigrants were forced to adapt their SRH preferences and behaviors to the structural barriers of the COVID‐19 pandemic. We coded and analyzed the interviews using a constant comparative approach.ResultsPandemic‐related fears and structural barriers to healthcare access shaped shifts in contraceptive use and preferences among our participants. Immigrant women weighed their concerns for health and safety and the potential of facing discrimination as part of their contraceptive preferences. Immigrants also described shifts in their pregnancy preferences as rooted in concerns for their health and safety and economic constraints unique to immigrant communities.ConclusionUnderstanding how immigrant women's SRH shifted in response to the structural and policy constraints of the COVID‐19 pandemic can reveal how historically marginalized communities will be impacted by an increasingly restrictive reproductive health and immigration policy landscape.