Contraception reduces the risk of unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections (STIs), which are important public health concerns globally. However, many inequities in contraceptive use and access exist, even in high income countries (HIC) like Australia. Gender is an important aspect of contraceptive use and interacts with other social determinants of health to create patterns of health inequities. The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, is expected to exacerbate many of these health inequalities based on the intersection of gender and other axes of disadvantage like socioeconomic status(SES), race, migration status and Indigeneity, which are discussed here, and other factors such as sexuality and disability status which are not discussed here, but are equally as important. The pandemic has resulted in disrupted access to contraception and sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services, a widening of the gender socio-economic and education divide and an increase in sexual and gender based violence (SGBV). It has also reinforced the barriers to accessing SRH services for Black, Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) and other women of colour due to existing structural disadvantages and a rise in worldwide racism and xenophobia. However, emerging from the upheaval caused by this crisis, there is also  the promise of progress in not only in the space of SRH, but also in social and health inequalities on a larger scale.