The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly affected society’s medically and socially vulnerable populations
in various ways: loss of employment, food insecurity, and reduced access to essential medical and
social services. Nonprofit community-based organization (also known as CBOs) have been working
with the health care sector to address the needs of vulnerable populations. CBOs have an important
role in mitigating the economic consequences of COVID-19. However, in a time of deep economic
difficulty and physical and mental distress when social services are most needed many CBOs are
facing diminishing resources despite greater need for those services by the clients they serve; some are
struggling to survive. It is estimated that up to sixty percent of organizations reported destabilizing
conditions. CBOs often rely on donations, grants, and fundraising events to keep their doors open.
Many are anticipating decreases in donations by donors, along with cancelled fundraising events to
comply with social distancing measures. Social distancing policies will cause special events to be
cancelled. the stock market decline will limit donations made by private and foundation philanthropy;
CBOs like food banks and transitional housing facilities could close at a time when more than 40
million Americans have filed for unemployment and need them the most.
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced service delivery organizations across the US to rethink how they
deliver support in a world where in-person interactions are restricted. Organizations serving
vulnerable populations have had to be particularly adaptable to rapidly restore and ensure the
continuity of services to meet people’s needs, needs that may have been intensified by the pandemic.
Organizations have had to determine the new skills and supports their participants and staff need to
meet new demands of balancing work and family. Although COVID-19 introduced challenges that
could create gaps in service delivery, it also led to insights about how human service delivery
programs can be resilient and function while under these new circumstances
The issue that I will be talking about is abortion, specifically the effects of the Supreme Court’s
decision to overturn Roe v. Wade on health care and reproductive services. The case used to overturn
Roe, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, was centred around the challenge of the
constitutionality of a Mississippi law that banned abortion after fifteen weeks of pregnancy. The
Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution did not guarantee a federally recognized right to access
abortion and that each state would need to dictate abortion access (Keith, 2022). The decision set off
various “trigger” laws that banned abortion either immediately banned it or soon would activate soon
after the decision. As a result of these laws, states such as Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri,
Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Texas no longer have a single medical clinic providing abortion care
(The Guardian, 2022). Other states, such as Georgia, Ohio, South Carolina, and Tennessee have
decreased the number of abortion clinics. The closures of these clinics can be said to negatively impact
the social services related to reproductive health care by “deepen[ing] inequities in access to care
based on race, gender, income, age or immigration status since long travel distances to reach a clinic
in another state will be a barrier for many people” (The Guardian, 2022). This large travel distance for
many, combined with the short access window of six weeks of pregnancy (many women are unaware
they are pregnant before six weeks) in multiple states prevents many people from being able to get an
abortion.
As such, there is now an increased number of people whose needs for reproductive health care are
unable to be met by social services in the wake of the Dobbs decision. The decision has also raised
many questions regarding federal and state litigation over bodily autonomy and reproductive
healthcare which could potentially result in further policy changes that affect the ability of social
service organizations to help clients with healthcare needs (Keith, 2022). Depending on the state and
the client’s reason for seeking an abortion, it could be more difficult for social workers to help their
clients address their needs if alternative solutions are unacceptable to the client, unavailable due to
resource scarcity, or outlawed by the state.
The Social Security Act and how it impacted the human services agencies.
The first article discusses how when the Social Security Act first became a thing, there was no budget,
no staff, and no facilities to begin running it the way people intended for it to be run. This caused a lot
of tension within the government and the federal emergency relief act had to step in to help. This
affected agencies by causing them to lack in funding and staff because they had been hoping for grants
and benefits for the people who came through.
The second article discusses what would happen if the government allowed for no more trust funds.
The Social Security Act allowed for grants and trust funds to be sent to human service agencies all
over, if the trust funds and grants stop, who is going to help the people in the human services agencies.
What will happen with elderly who need help, children who need help, and all the people who rely on
human services offices.
Fleisher, J. (2022). What Lacks in the Social Security Act and the Effect on Human Services
Agencies. Boston University Public Interest Law Journal, 31(1), 113–142.
Huston, B. F. (2022). Social Security & Human Resources: What Would Happen If the Trust Funds
Ran Out? Congressional Research Service: Report, 1–21.
Keith, K. (2022). Supreme Court Ends Right To Abortion: The Court overturned Roe v. Wade and
issued other health-related decisions; the Biden administration finalized new rules. Health Affairs,
41(8), 1070–1071. https://doi-org.ezproxy.snhu.edu/10.1377/hlthaff.2022.00877
Sharp rise in US abortion clinic closures after Roe v Wade overturned; Guttmacher study shows
reduction in clinics offering care in 11 states that have implemented bans since supreme court ruling.
(2022, July 28). The Guardian [London, England], NA.
https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A711839521/OVIC?u=nhc_main&sid=bookmark-
OVIC&xid=f38c0d04
Essential social services are struggling to survive the COVID-19 crisis. Commonwealth Fund. (2020,
June 1). from https://www.commonwealthfund.org/blog/2020/essential-social-services-are-struggling-
survive-covid-19-crisis
Holliday, S. B., Hunter, S. B., Dopp, A. R., Chamberlin, M., & Iguchi, M. Y. (2020, August 24). How
social service providers in L.A. County are responding to covid-19. RAND Corporation. from
https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA431-1.html
