Millions of women around the world lost access to family planning services like birth control and contraceptives as a result of disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic, according to estimates released Thursday by the United Nations Population Fund. The data further demonstrates how fallout from the virus has disproportionately impacted women, who are also facing increased childcare responsibilities and widespread job losses.

Researchers from the Population Fund (UNFPA), a U.N. agency focused on global reproductive health, estimated that 12 million women across 115 low- to middle-income countries were "unable to access family planning services as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic," with those disruptions lasting an average of 3.6 months and resulting in an estimated 1.4 million unplanned pregnancies in 2020.