Realizing the potential of medical abortion will require strong global partnerships to raise awareness and increase women’s access. Ipas works with health ministries, international and local nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), associations of obstetrician-gynecologists and other doctors, midwifery and pharmacy associations, community and women’s organizations, religious groups, and international agencies such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF).Through our Medical Abortion Initiative, our networking efforts include:

Ipas shares information and resource documents on medical abortion with partner organizations, health-care providers, program managers, researchers, advocates and others. This information exchange takes the form of publications, presentations at conferences, participation in meetings and events, and through online communications, including Medical Abortion Matters, our new subscription-based e-newsletter.

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Ipas collaborates with partners at all levels of the formal and informal health system. We also work with NGOs, local community groups, and businesses to increase women’s access to and awareness of medical abortion. Through our partnerships, Ipas:

• works with ministries of health to draft standards and guidelines for abortion
• conducts health-care provider trainings in Cambodia with the Ministry of Health, Options UK and other partners through the Reduction in Maternal Mortality Project
• supported the Latin American Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology’s production and dissemination of the manual, Use of Misoprostol in Obstetrics and Gynecology
• implemented a harm-reduction program with partners Iniciativas Sanitarias and El Abrojo in Uruguay

Ipas participates in consortia and networks to advance medical abortion advocacy, information sharing, skills building, research and resource mobilization. Ipas’s Global Trainers Network provides a virtual forum for abortion providers around the world. MAPnet, an Ipas-sponsored physician network in India’s Maharashtra state, provides doctors with technical training on medical abortion and helps them inform women about medical abortion. Through MAPnet, providers can also communicate and share experiences with other doctors. (read more)

Ipas has been a member of The International Consortium for Medical Abortion (ICMA) since its inception, with a member on the steering committee and leadership in regional networks in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America. ICMA plays a pivotal role in developing materials, sharing information, and convening organizations and individuals from around the world to advance medical abortion within a framework of safe abortion care. Ipas helped develop the ICMA Information Package, which includes resources for women, women’s organizations and NGOs, health-care providers, and policymakers.

Medical abortion is most effective when a woman uses mifepristone and misoprostol together. As part of our efforts to increase access to safe medical abortion drugs and services, Ipas has joined an international partnership to expand women’s access to Medabon®, the first product to package mifepristone and misoprostol together in a single blister pack.

The Medabon® Access Partnership includes the Concept Foundation, Ipas, Marie Stopes International, Population Services International and PATH. This partnership brings together organizations that will play major roles in ensuring the availability and appropriate introduction of Medabon® throughout the world.

To meet the needs of women, the Medabon® Access partners will work with local ministries of health to introduce and build a sustainable supply of Medabon® in a number of countries. The partners are working to ensure the widest access to medical abortion, and to support all cadres of providers, as well as all health-care facilities — from hospitals to clinics to pharmacies — in delivering high-quality services to women.

• Abortion Access Project
• Association of Reproductive Health Professionals (ARHP)
• Bangla Natak.com: i-land Informatics Limited
• Centre for Media Studies
• Central and Eastern European Women’s Network for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (ASTRA)
• Child in Need Institute (CINI)
• Concept Foundation
• Decidir: Coalición de Jóvenes por una Ciudadanía Sexual
• Department of Reproductive Health and Research, World Health Organization (WHO)
• El Abrojo
• Federación Latinoamericano de Sociedades de Obstetricia y Ginecologia (FLASOG, Latin American Federation of Obstetrics and Gynecology)
• Fédération Internationale des Associés Professionnels de l'Avortement et de la Contraception (FIAPAC, International Federation of Professional Abortion and Contraception Associates)
• Fondo MARIA 
• Grupo de Información en Reproducción Elegida (GIRE, Information Group on Reproductive Choice)
• Guttmacher Institute
• Gynuity Health Projects