http://www.ipas.org Ipas works globally to increase women's ability to exercise their sexual and reproductive rights and to reduce abortion-related deaths and injuries. We seek to expand the availability, quality and sustainability of abortion and related reproductive-health services, as well as to improve the enabling environment. Ipas believes that no woman should have to risk her life or health because she lacks safe reproductive-health choices. en-us 120 THU, 02 SEP 2010 24:07:23 EST http://www.ipas.org/Library/News/News_Items/Intervention_improves_Nigerian_midwives_education_knowledge_of_postabortion_care.aspx?ref=rss http://www.ipas.org/Library/News/News_Items/Intervention_improves_Nigerian_midwives_education_knowledge_of_postabortion_care.aspx A successful strategy to improve midwives’ capacity to treat postabortion complications is documented this month in the International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics. “An evaluation of a national intervention to improve the postabortion care content of midwifery education in Nigeria,” reports the results of an assessment of a multi-year national intervention to improve postabortion care training in all 70 schools of midwifery in Nigeria. MON, 23 AUG 2010 EST 77 51 http://www.ipas.org/Library/News/News_Items/Intervention_improves_Nigerian_midwives_education_knowledge_of_postabortion_care.aspx?ref=rss /Library/News/News_Items/asset_upload_file234_5227.jpg http://www.ipas.org/Library/News/News_Items/A_champion_of_care_leads_the_way_for_safe_abortion_in_Zambia.aspx?ref=rss http://www.ipas.org/Library/News/News_Items/A_champion_of_care_leads_the_way_for_safe_abortion_in_Zambia.aspx Dr. Mutinta Muyuni, a practicing obstetrician/gynecologist in Lusaka, Zambia, provides comprehensive women’s health care, including safe abortion to the full extent of the law. As an ally who advocates publicly for women’s right to safe abortion care, she says she is “not ashamed of my work, and we shouldn’t be ashamed … I reached the stage where I can be a public face for the many people who cannot show their faces.” Dr. Muyuni encourages colleagues to save women’s lives by providing safe abortion care and discusses how Ipas’s values clarification training helped her become an advocate for compassionate abortion service provision. WED, 18 AUG 2010 EST 45 52 http://www.ipas.org/Library/News/News_Items/A_champion_of_care_leads_the_way_for_safe_abortion_in_Zambia.aspx?ref=rss /Library/News/News_Items/asset_upload_file752_5219.jpg http://www.ipas.org/Library/News/News_Items/More_focus_on_womens_health_needs_rights_at_International_AIDS_Conference.aspx?ref=rss http://www.ipas.org/Library/News/News_Items/More_focus_on_womens_health_needs_rights_at_International_AIDS_Conference.aspx Some 20,000 researchers, program implementers, advocates and policymakers participated in the recent International AIDS Conference, held July 18-23 in Vienna, to share research and lessons in the global response to HIV/AIDS. The conference has long been a site where emerging topics in the epidemic are discussed and debated, and this year was no exception. While a great deal of attention was given to programming for sex workers and drug users, a number of sessions also focused on women’s particular needs. WED, 11 AUG 2010 EST 77 51 http://www.ipas.org/Library/News/News_Items/More_focus_on_womens_health_needs_rights_at_International_AIDS_Conference.aspx?ref=rss /Library/News/News_Items/asset_upload_file462_5213.jpg http://www.ipas.org/Library/News/News_Items/Abortion_women_on_the_margins.aspx?ref=rss http://www.ipas.org/Library/News/News_Items/Abortion_women_on_the_margins.aspx On July 15th, 2010, the Obama administration imposed a ban on abortion coverage in the administration’s new Pre-existing Condition Insurance Plans Program (PCIP), which provides insurance to “high-risk” consumers who, because of a medical condition, have been turned down by private insurers. The ban only amplifies the anti-choice presence in the health-care debate and the marginalization of abortion in general. THU, 22 JUL 2010 EST 40 52 http://www.ipas.org/Library/News/News_Items/Abortion_women_on_the_margins.aspx?ref=rss /Library/News/News_Items/asset_upload_file287_5190.jpg http://www.ipas.org/Library/News/News_Items/Increasing_access_to_safe_abortion_care_in_Nepal_through_community_health_volunteers.aspx?ref=rss http://www.ipas.org/Library/News/News_Items/Increasing_access_to_safe_abortion_care_in_Nepal_through_community_health_volunteers.aspx A unique program seeks to remove the barriers to safe abortion for rural women, using well-respected female community health volunteers (FCHVs). The Nepali government began training health extension workers decades ago. Now there are more than 48,000 FCHVs working all over the country. The volunteers support a number of health outreach programs, including immunization, prenatal and neonatal care. FCHVs “are of the community, they know the languages,” says Rishi Parajuli, Ipas Nepal medical abortion manager. “Why not train them in giving information about safe abortion care?” he and others at Ipas asked. TUE, 15 JUN 2010 EST 34 52 http://www.ipas.org/Library/News/News_Items/Increasing_access_to_safe_abortion_care_in_Nepal_through_community_health_volunteers.aspx?ref=rss /Library/News/News_Items/asset_upload_file815_5122.jpg http://www.ipas.org/Library/News/News_Items/African_midwives_forge_new_Alliance_to_improve_the_health_of_women_their_families.aspx?ref=rss http://www.ipas.org/Library/News/News_Items/African_midwives_forge_new_Alliance_to_improve_the_health_of_women_their_families.aspx Midwives are on the front lines of the effort to reduce maternal deaths and improve reproductive health for women around the world. Ipas sponsored 14 midwives from Kenya, Malawi, Zambia, Ghana, Nigeria and Ethiopia to participate in the 2nd Africa Midwives Regional Conference on “African midwives united towards achievement of Millennium Development Goals” held in Kampala, Uganda, May 4-7, 2010. THU, 03 JUN 2010 EST http://www.ipas.org/Library/News/News_Items/Invest_in_safe_abortion_care_to_reduce_maternal_mortality.aspx?ref=rss http://www.ipas.org/Library/News/News_Items/Invest_in_safe_abortion_care_to_reduce_maternal_mortality.aspx Next week in Washington, D.C., Women Deliver will bring together voices from around the globe to call for action against maternal death. This large international conference will draw attention to the plight of women everywhere who die because they lack access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care. Unsafe abortion causes 13 percent of maternal deaths worldwide – deaths that could be prevented if women had access to safe, affordable technologies. Almost all of these nearly 67,000 deaths occur in developing countries, half in sub-Saharan Africa. Ipas speakers at the conference, including Ipas President and CEO Elizabeth Maguire, will make the case for a concerted global effort to expand women’s access to safe abortion in order to save lives and protect women’s human rights. WED, 02 JUN 2010 EST 77 52 http://www.ipas.org/Library/News/News_Items/Invest_in_safe_abortion_care_to_reduce_maternal_mortality.aspx?ref=rss /Library/News/News_Items/asset_upload_file296_5089.jpg http://www.ipas.org/Library/News/News_Items/Senate_committee_votes_to_repeal_military_abortion_ban.aspx?ref=rss http://www.ipas.org/Library/News/News_Items/Senate_committee_votes_to_repeal_military_abortion_ban.aspx On Thursday, the Senate Armed Services Committee voted to repeal a law banning military hospitals from providing abortion care. Current law prohibits military hospitals from providing abortion care except in cases of rape, incest or threat to a woman’s life. FRI, 28 MAY 2010 EST 77 51 http://www.ipas.org/Library/News/News_Items/Senate_committee_votes_to_repeal_military_abortion_ban.aspx?ref=rss /Library/News/News_Items/asset_upload_file35_5085.jpg http://www.ipas.org/Library/News/News_Items/Ipas_partners_discuss_the_impact_of_U.S._foreign_domestic_policy_on_abortion_on_Capitol_Hill.aspx?ref=rss http://www.ipas.org/Library/News/News_Items/Ipas_partners_discuss_the_impact_of_U.S._foreign_domestic_policy_on_abortion_on_Capitol_Hill.aspx On May 25, Ipas, the National Network of Abortion Funds and Black Women for Reproductive Justice, in cooperation with Reps. Louise Slaughter, Jan Schakowsky, Barbara Lee, Lois Capps and Yvette Clark, came together to address how U.S. domestic and foreign policies affect women’s reproductive health. Hundreds attended the briefing, including nearly 20 representatives from Congressional offices. FRI, 28 MAY 2010 EST 77 42 http://www.ipas.org/Library/News/News_Items/Ipas_partners_discuss_the_impact_of_U.S._foreign_domestic_policy_on_abortion_on_Capitol_Hill.aspx?ref=rss /Library/News/News_Items/asset_upload_file582_5124.jpg http://www.ipas.org/Library/News/News_Items/Breaking_taboos_about_sex_in_rural_South_Africa.aspx?ref=rss http://www.ipas.org/Library/News/News_Items/Breaking_taboos_about_sex_in_rural_South_Africa.aspx In rural South Africa, an organization is confronting life-threatening social taboos and working to replace them with a greater awareness of reproductive health and human rights. That organization is Mpilonhle, promoting health and social development among adolescents in the rural district of uMkhanyakude, in the coastal province of KwaZulu Natal. MON, 24 MAY 2010 EST 38 52 http://www.ipas.org/Library/News/News_Items/Breaking_taboos_about_sex_in_rural_South_Africa.aspx?ref=rss /Library/News/News_Items/asset_upload_file558_5082.jpg