Table 4.

Comparing action taken and future policy plans to protect SDG5 targets in times of COVID-19 pandemic in five selected upper-middle and high-income countries.

Substance*	Action taken and future policy plans to protect SDG5 targets, selected countries
Maternity care/reproductive health
Summary	No country had a policy in place to prioritize and reorganize services; no signs of policy learning and inclusion in future policy; strong expansion of digital services with little attention for inequalities in access; prioritization of medical care against psycho-social support services; no attention to intersecting inequalities
Maternity care	Lack of systematic service reorganization; prioritization of medical care against psycho-social services; some inclusion of digital services in future policy
Reproductive health services	No prioritization; lack of action and attention
Reproductive rights	No prioritization but policy interventions strongly vary, ranging from some protection and expansion of early medical abortion in Australia (temporarily in the UK) and some improvement (Germany) and no change (Brazil) in legal conditions to a new ban of abortion rights and strong restrictions in some states in the US
Care for pregnant women/vaccination	Inclusion in vaccination prioritization programs but some variation
Health labor market and employment	Lack of attention and action; some variation especially in relation to protection of pregnant HCWs
Social inequalities	No monitoring established; lack of attention and action
Gender-based violence
Summary	No prioritization; lack of prevention and protection of women; action and future policy strongly vary between countries
Access to services	Action taken varies, ranging from shifting responsibility to NGOs and/or municipalities in Brazil and Germany to significant increases in budgets for support services for victims, new schemes and new laws in Australia, with the UK and US taken position in the middle
Scaling-up/new programs and training programs	New programs in Australia and UK, efforts in other countries focus on filling gaps and ignoring increased demand; lack of training of HCWs and prevention programs with some attention to protection in Australia
Access of HCWs to help-lines	Little attention
Social inequalities	No monitoring established; lack of attention
Gender equality/leadership
Summary	No prioritization; lack of attention to SDG5 goals and gender mainstreaming; no signs of systematic inclusion in future policy
Participation/leadership in pandemic policy	Lack of action; some change and more balanced quotas more recently with new governments in Australia, Germany and the US; some attention from the media
Gender equality goals in pandemic policy	Lack of attention; no gender mainstreaming
Gender equality goals in research	Lack of attention; no gender mainstreaming except mandatory requirements in some countries; some action by female scientists in some countries
Access to childcare	Closures but strong variety in action taken to support HCWs/mothers
Access to schools	Closures but strong variety in action taken to support HCWs/mothers
Social inequalities	No monitoring established; lack of attention

^*Items are abbreviated (for details, see Table 2).

Source: authors' own table based on country case reports (Tables S1–S5 in Supplementary Appendix).