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| Ipas CEO Elizabeth Maguire meeting Ethiopian President Ato Girma Wolde Giorgis |
| Ipas Ethiopia |
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Ipas’s work to improve women’s health was recognized earlier this month by Ethiopian President Ato Girma Wolde Giorgis during a meeting with Ipas President & CEO Elizabeth Maguire. The audience was part of a series of meetings Maguire attended with high-level government officials in Ethiopia to express appreciation for the collaboration between Ipas and the Ethiopian government in the past decade.
“This was indeed a great honor for me,” Maguire said of her meeting with the president, “because it shows once again the depth of the commitment of the Ethiopian government to help women prevent and safely manage unwanted pregnancy through expanding access to comprehensive contraception and abortion care.”
Ipas has been working with the Ministry of Health in Ethiopia to reduce maternal mortality by training and equipping health-care providers to provide post-abortion care, and in recent years by supporting the promulgation of a new abortion law. During their meeting, President Girma was pleased to receive an update of Ipas’s work with the Ministry to increase women’s access to comprehensive reproductive health care – crucial to improving maternal health in Ethiopia.
Unsafe abortion is one of the primary causes of maternal mortality in Ethiopia, and in 2006, the country enacted one of the region’s most progressive abortion laws in order to reduce needless deaths and injuries to women. “Ethiopia serves as a model for other countries," Maguire said, “both for its liberal abortion law, as well as for the strong commitment of the central government to increasing access to family planning and safe abortion care.”
During her visit to Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, Maguire also met with Minister of Health Dr. Tedros Adhanom and the Minister of the Women’s Affairs, Mrs. Mufriat Kamil. “These visits were very productive and will pave the way for expanded collaboration between Ipas and the Ethiopian Government,” said Maguire.
For more information, contact media@ipas.org