Sexual and reproductive health care is often neglected or difficult to access during a crisis, and this can in turn drive more people to seek unsafe abortions that risk their health and lives. For these reasons, Ipas Nigeria conducted a study to understand the impact of Nigeria’s COVID-19 lockdowns on access to safe abortion. Overall, study findings show that the lockdowns exacerbated the pandemic’s impact on women’s access to safe abortion services.
Refugees and displaced people face uniquely challenging barriers to abortion access, including the collapse of health systems, statelessness, and a lack of prioritization of sexual and reproductive health services by humanitarian agencies. In this commentary published in Frontiers in Global Women’s Health, the authors summarize the evidence around abortion access in humanitarian contexts, and highlight the opportunities for interventions that could increase knowledge and support around self-managed abortion.
In 2021, the “Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill” was introduced in the Ghanaian Parliament. The bill, if passed, would criminalize LGBTI people and behavior, as well as those who support their rights, and even those who report on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) issues. While there has been significant national and international media coverage of the bill, what is less understood is who is driving promotion of the bill, and the accompanying harmful public debate. This report seeks to fill that knowledge gap, identifying who is behind the external anti-LGBTI influence, detailing connections between Ghanaian leaders and conservative foreign groups, and showing how anti-LGBTI rhetoric, and social and other media traffic, are being shaped and driven by these interests. As of March 2023, the anti-LGBTI bill is still pending in Ghanaian parliament. With this report, we provide recommendations to continue exposing the origins of anti-LGBTI hatred in Ghana and guidance on supporting LGBTI rights and reclaiming the narrative from homophobic politicians and other personalities to demonstrate that reactionary narratives against LGBTI rights are not universal in Ghana.
These two fact sheets—Measuring Abortion Service Quality and Abortion Metrics Matter— describe the Abortion Service Quality Initiative’s work to develop a set of common, reliable and evidenced-based metrics to evaluate the quality of abortion care.
In 2021, the “Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill” was introduced in the Ghanaian Parliament. The bill, if passed, would criminalize LGBTI people and behavior, as well as those who support their rights, and even those who report on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) issues. While there has been significant national and international media coverage of the bill, what is less understood is who is driving promotion of the bill, and the accompanying harmful public debate. This report seeks to fill that knowledge gap, identifying who is behind the external anti-LGBTI influence, detailing connections between Ghanaian leaders and conservative foreign groups, and showing how anti-LGBTI rhetoric, and social and other media traffic, are being shaped and driven by these interests. As of March 2023, the anti-LGBTI bill is still pending in Ghanaian parliament. With this report, we provide recommendations to continue exposing the origins of anti-LGBTI hatred in Ghana and guidance on supporting LGBTI rights and reclaiming the narrative from homophobic politicians and other personalities to demonstrate that reactionary narratives against LGBTI rights are not universal in Ghana.
This toolkit provides all the resources needed to plan workshops for organizations that want to build a disability inclusion mindset among their staff and partners who work on abortion and sexual and reproductive health and rights programs.
Abortion with pills is a safe and effective way to end a pregnancy, but you must use the right medications. There are many counterfeit and poor-quality abortion pills available. Here are 10 common questions and answers to help you find the right pills.
This guide helps women know if they can use abortion pills to end an unwanted pregnancy, how to use the pills, and how to know if they worked.
Advocating for abortion access is unlike advocacy on any other global health-care issue. This publication shares insights and lessons learned by Ipas staff and our partners around the world through decades of advocacy work to expand abortion access. The content outlines key obstacles and opportunities that advocates encounter, plus strategies for overcoming common challenges.
This guide includes basic information on medication abortion (abortion with pills) and was developed to help community members trained in accompaniment to support women with safe options in their abortion care. The term “accompaniment” refers to any support offered a woman during her entire experience of considering, seeking and engaging in abortion self-care.
We believe in a world where every person can determine their own future. In our 2020 Impact Report, learn about Ipas’s global results and our vital work to protect and expand abortion access during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This tool is designed to help program planners and organizations understand abortion law and manage legal risk when providing or supporting access to abortion for people who are displaced by crisis. It provides general guidance and can be used online or in-person and with program teams, field teams, program managers and other decision-makers. It can also be incorporated in risk- and security-assessment processes.