Unlike other abortion methods, medical abortion can be safely used in even the most remote settings. Ipas conducts medical abortion trainings around the world, building on more than 30 years of experience with abortion training and service improvement with manual vacuum aspiration. From hospitals to local communities, our programs reach doctors, nurses, midwives, birth attendants, and other health facility staff in both government-run and private health centers. Ipas integrates medical abortion into all of our work on woman-centered comprehensive abortion care. We also bring medical abortion to locations where other abortion services are unavailable.

Ipas combines the simple technology of medical abortion with training approaches that improve both quality of and access to care, focusing on midwives, nurses, and other midlevel providers. Ipas conducted the first public-sector medical abortion trainings in Nepal and Ethiopia. We continue to support these countries as they introduce medical abortion on a national level. In Vietnam and Mexico City, Ipas’s comprehensive programs have trained providers to incorporate medical abortion into their practices. In India, Ipas trainings have used blended learning strategies to reach providers across the country. Ipas has also provided coaching to existing medical abortion providers in Russia, and introduced health-care providers to the use of misoprostol for a range of ob-gyn uses in Nigeria.

Ipas trains health-care providers to train others, and provides those trainers with ongoing support and learning opportunities. Through our Global Trainers Network, Ipas connects a virtual community of practice, facilitating the exchange of information among participants and offering members opportunities for ongoing learning.

Ipas designs comprehensive training materials for first- and second-trimester abortion for use in low-resource settings. These materials are pilot-tested and adapted in the countries where we work. Ipas uses these materials in country and regional programs, collaborates with other organizations to make training resources available through their programs, and makes materials available directly to individual trainers and health-care providers. Ipas’s materials include formal training curricula, as well as tools to improve how services are delivered. These tools include performance checklists, monitoring and evaluation instruments, supply lists and more. 

Ipas University, or IpasU, provides free online learning on reproductive health care with a focus on abortion. Practicing clinicians or clinicians who are in training can register for IpasU and take courses on a variety of subjects, including medical abortion, to increase their skills and knowledge on abortion and postabortion care.

Visit our publications section for medical abortion training materials

Ipas collaborates with a range of partners to strengthen networks that connect women to accurate medical abortion information and safe services. In a Latin American country, a model of “accompaniers” takes the traditional role of birth doulas and adapts it for women seeking abortion care. In Nepal, Ipas and our local partners trained female community health volunteers to provide information on the legal status of abortion and where to access safe services, and to conduct pregnancy tests for women who think they might be pregnant. Through community-based “intermediaries” (trusted people who women turn to for information), a pilot project in India connected women with primary health centers providing safe abortion services. In Nigeria and Zambia, pharmacists are being trained on the safe and correct use of misoprostol, and how to help prevent unsafe abortion.

Visit our Training page for more information.

©2009 Ipas

Ipas University is a free, online self-paced learning site for clinicians with a focus on safe abortion care and postabortion care.

Now available: Introductory course on medical abortion – with more to come!

Visit www.IpasU.org or click on the image above to register.