Brussels, 5 May 2020 Dear Ms Ursula Von Der Leyen, President of The

Brussels, 5 May 2020 Dear Ms Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, Dear Ms Stella Kyriakides, Commissioner of Health and Food Safety, Dear Mr Charles Michel, President of the European Council, Dear Ms Irena Andrassy, Permanent Representative of the Croatian Presidency During the last plenary session, on 17 April 2020, the European Parliament adopted a resolution on EU coordinated action to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences[1], by which we, Members of this House, called on the European institutions and Member States to take urgent actions in light of the current public health crisis. One of the key demands from the European Parliament was to call on Member states and the EU institutions to monitor and uphold access to Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR). One of the major consequences of the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak is that it has become more difficult to access many key medical services, including those related to sexual and reproductive health. Women and people from vulnerable social groups, such as refugees and migrants, women and girls with disabilities, as well as teenage girls, encounter significant obstacles when trying to access contraception, emergency contraception and abortion care. Thus, we would like to draw your attention to paragraph 48 of the European Parliament resolution, which calls upon Member States to “effectively guarantee safe and timely access to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and the necessary healthcare services for all women and girls during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially access to contraception, including emergency contraception, and to abortion care”. Furthermore, the European Parliament strongly rejected “any attempts to backtrack on SRHR and LGBTI rights, and in this context condemn[ed] the attempts to further criminalise abortion care, stigmatise HIV-positive people, and undermine young people’s access to sexuality education in Poland, as well as the attack on transgender and intersex people’s rights in Hungary”. As mentioned above, some of the Member States are using the current situation to limit sexual and reproductive rights even more, as well as to impose homophobic and transphobic laws. This is an unprecedented situation, where widespread lockdown measures render the civil society unable to intervene and defend basic rights. We call on the European Commission to condemn these anti-democratic actions, and to defend the women´s rights, access to SRHR, and LGBTI rights - in particular during challenging times as those we are experiencing now. In this context, we would also like to highlight the report from the EPF (European Parliamentary Forum) together with IPPF European Network, which focuses on the situation for SRHR during the Covid-19 pandemic. The report sheds important light on some of the very serious negative developments, but also highlights where positive measures have been taken. We would like to highlight some of their key recommendations, which we share: • The EU must ensure that all emergency measures taken by Member States in response to the public health crisis pursue a legitimate purpose, are strictly necessary, proportionate, with a definitive end date, and subject to democratic scrutiny. Governments have a duty to uphold fundamental rights during the crisis, in particular those of the most marginalised, i.e. transgender persons, women seeking abortion care, victims of Sexual and Gender based violence (SGBV) or refugees, among others. The EU must ensure that responses to the crisis are gender-sensitive, intersectional and do not reinforce existing inequalities. • Governments must continue to guarantee access without discrimination to all SRHR services, information and commodities during the crisis by recognising that they are essential, life-saving and time-sensitive. • Governments must adapt their policies, technical guidance and service-delivery models to guarantee access to SRHR during the crisis, (e.g. by allowing telemedicine, access to contraception without prescription, early medication abortion from home, by removing medically unnecessary administrative obstacles, and by ensuring dignified maternal healthcare). • Governments must ensure that services and resources remain available and accessible for survivors of SGBV as essential services (hotlines, shelters, referral mechanisms, etc). • The EU and donor countries must support partner countries, and emphasise the need to prioritise human development, which includes health and SRHR, as part of the COVID-19 response. • Governments and the EU must maintain an enabling financial environment for civil society organisations, including by removing co-funding requirements and allowing greater flexibility. We look forward to increased actions to protect sexual and reproductive health and rights as an integral part of the Covid-19 responses. We thank you in advance for keeping us informed of your next steps. Yours sincerely, All of Us Coordinators: Malin BJÖRK, Member of the European Parliament Maria NOICHL, Member of the European Parliament Terry REINTKE, Member of the European Parliament Eugenia RODRÍGUEZ PALOP, Member of the European Parliament Irène TOLLERET, Member of the European Parliament Ernest URTASUN, Member of the European Parliament --- Abir AL-SAHLANI, Member of the European Parliament Konstantinos ARVANITIS, Member of the European Parliament Pernando BARRENA, Member of the European Parliament Izaskun BILBAO BARANDICA, Member of the European Parliament Saskia BRICMONT, Member of the European Parliament Gwendoline DELBOS-CORFIELD, Member of the European Parliament Petra DE SUTTER, Member of the European Parliament Cornelia ERNST, Member of the European Parliament Fredrick FEDERLEY, Member of the European Parliament Heléne FRITZON, Member of the European Parliament George GEORGIOU, Member of the European Parliament José GUSMÃO, Member of the European Parliament Sophie IN 'T VELD, Member of the European Parliament Karin KARLSBRO, Member of the European Parliament Niyazi KIZILYÜREK, Member of the European Parliament Alice KUHNKE, Member of the European Parliament Maria-Manuel LEITÃO-MARQUES, Member of the European Parliament Marisa MATIAS, Member of the European Parliament Predrag Fred MATIĆ, Member of the European Parliament Radka MAXOVÁ, Member of the European Parliament Karen MELCHIOR, Member of the European Parliament Martina MICHELS, Member of the European Parliament Alessandra MORETTI, Member of the European Parliament Dimitrios PAPADIMOULIS, Member of the European Parliament Anne-Sophie PELLETIER, Member of the European Parliament Kira PETER-HANSEN, Member of the European Parliament Pina PICIERNO, Member of the European Parliament Samira RAFAELA, Member of the European Parliament Evelyn REGNER, Member of the European Parliament Diana RIBA, Member of the European Parliament Soraya RODRIGUEZ RAMOS, Member of the European Parliament Vera TAX, Member of the European Parliament Miguel URBÁN CRESPO, Member of the European Parliament Monika VANA, Member of the European Parliament Kim VAN SPARRENTAK, Member of the European Parliament Hilde VAUTMANS, Member of the European Parliament Idoia VILLANUEVA RUIZ, Member of the European Parliament Mick WALLACE, Member of the European Parliament Chrysoula ZACHAROPOULOU, Member of the European Parliament .

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