Both the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) and the Commission on Population and Development (CPD) meetings are important spaces where countries and advocates work to advance international human rights agreements, including those focused on sexual and reproductive rights. This year, these spaces were more contentious than ever, fueled by the U.S. […]
In low- and middle-income countries where abortion has been decriminalized, little research has been done into the question of how many women are unable to access abortion care because they present for treatment past the legal gestational age limit, and which factors might make late presentation more likely. A new study examines these questions and finds that […]
For more than a decade, Ipas has conducted workshops around the world to encourage health providers, policymakers and others to reflect on their values and attitudes toward abortion and consider the consequences when safe abortion services are not available to women. These “values clarification and attitude transformation” (VCAT) workshops encourage participants to explore their assumptions […]
Public health organizations are increasingly using mobile health (mHealth) interventions to target specific audiences with personalized health information. In Bangladesh, an Ipas study used mHealth messaging to determine what family planning information women want to receive after having a safe abortion (known as “menstrual regulation” in this country). Government health guidelines recommend women receive family planning services […]
On March 8, International Women’s Day, the UK All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Population, Development and Reproductive Health released a report calling for the UK government to support safe abortion at home and abroad. In November, the APPG held a series of hearings in the British Parliament to gather evidence for the report. Ipas’s Gillian […]
Improved access to safe abortion has benefited adolescent women A new study by researchers from Ipas and the Guttmacher Institute finds that adolescent women are more likely than older women to seek legal and safe abortion services, since the 2005 expansion on Ethiopia’s abortion law. “Playing it Safe: Legal and Clandestine Abortions Among Adolescents in Ethiopia,” documents the […]
From March 12-23, world leaders and advocates for women’s rights from around the world will be in New York attending the United Nations’ 62nd session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), focusing this year on empowering rural women and girls. Representatives of Ipas will be there, working alongside our partners to ensure that women’s sexual […]
by Wycliffe Omanya, Ipas Africa Alliance Stage Media is a group of 15 young people who have found their calling in entertainment that enlightens the community on sexual and reproductive health issues in Bungoma County in western Kenya. Using radio plays and other types of performances, the group does community outreach that is focused on […]
One Rohingya woman’s story shows what’s at stake for so many refugees At just 22 years old, Toyoba has already faced unimaginable hardships. A Rohingya woman from Myanmar and the mother of three daughters, she was forced to flee her village in October 2017 to escape a brutal campaign of persecution by government military forces. […]
Until just a few years ago, women and girls in the Hobor area of rural Greater Accra in Ghana had no local access to safe abortion care. The nearest services were more than 15 miles away, a distance especially challenging during rainy season. Today, a full range of comprehensive abortion and family planning services is […]