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| A community health worker in Bihar, India, uses picture-based materials to explain medical abortion. |
| Richard Lord |
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About 170 providers, advocates, policymakers and nongovernmental organization representatives recently gathered to share information, strategies and resources on medical abortion in Lisbon, Portugal, at a conference hosted by the International Consortium for Medical Abortion (ICMA) and co-sponsored by Ipas and Gynuity Health Projects.
Panelists from around the globe exchanged ideas about how to increase access to medical abortion, examine barriers and take stock of lessons learned thus far in various countries. Mary Fjerstad, Ipas senior clinical advisor for medical abortion, and Danish Khan advisor, Behaviour Change Communication, presented on how to develop information for women in different settings. “Providing clear, picture-based materials makes all the difference for women, many of whom benefit from having information to keep with them about what to expect with a medical abortion,” Fjerstad explained. “Health-care workers also find these materials helpful to use as guides when explaining medical abortion to women.” Danish showed the audience how Ipas India and local partners in the Indian states of Bihar and Jharkhand designed and field tested images and created posters and interactive games based on these images, which have reached more than 300,000 women with information on early medical abortion.
Bela Ganatra, Ipas senior research and policy advisor on medical abortion, presented on women's experiences with medical abortion and the need to ensure women's needs, views and individual contexts are the center stage of designing services and programs. Using data from an Ipas/ Population Council study in India, she highlighted the influence of providers in modifying women's experiences.
Ipas country directors Indira Basnett and Ejike Oji presented case studies about the status of medical abortion in Nepal and Nigeria, respectively. The successful introduction of medical abortion in Nepal during 2009 is being followed by expansion into new sites with services by newly involved cadres of health-care workers, including the training of skilled birth attendants to provide medical abortion to women who choose it. In Nepal, medical abortion is provided through both the public and private health systems, and is supported by a wide range of stakeholders. In Nigeria, where legal indications for abortion are very limited, information on the use of misoprostol for all of its indications, including the treatment of incomplete abortion and abortion, is included in workshops and outreach with all types of health-care professionals.
“When you are committed to a cause – in this case, the dual causes of preventing the tens-of-thousands deaths from unsafe abortion in the country each year and empowering women – you will always find a way,” said Oji.
Throughout the three-day conference, participants underscored how significantly cultural, legal and economic contexts vary from country to country even within regions. “We recognize that there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach to expanding women’s access to medical abortion”, said Traci Baird, director of Ipas’s medical abortion initiative. “Our enthusiasm for this important conference reflects how much we all can share and learn, across countries and regions, about supporting medical abortion.” Since ICMA’s first international meeting on medical abortion in Johannesburg in 2004, ICMA members have formed regional networks in Latin America/Caribbean, Asia, Eastern Europe, and Africa, each of which met during this conference to discuss plans for further expansion and activities in each region.
From the global arena to the most local, one thing is clear: medical abortion offers immense opportunity to increase access to safe abortion for women. The participants in last week’s conference will make sure of it.
For more information, contact media@ipas.org