The Helms amendment is a law barring U.S. foreign assistance from being used for abortion services. This fact sheet describes the negative impact of the Helms amendment in Nepal. The country liberalized its abortion law in 2002 and the right to safe motherhood and reproductive health was guaranteed by the 2015 Constitution. In 2018 the Right to Safe Motherhood and Reproductive Health Act further ensured that women and girls in Nepal have the right to access safe, legal abortion free of charge at public health facilities. Yet due in great part to U.S. funding restrictions like the Helms Amendment, Nepal’s reproductive health care provision is fragmented and needlessly inefficient, putting the most burden on women and girls seeking abortion care.
Region: Asia
Improving Access to Comprehensive Abortion Care in India with Focus on Expanding Provider Base
Self-managing abortions safely
As early as possible and as late as necessary
The pregnancy of a 10-year-old presents a complex and unprecedented situation but laws sensitive to the needs of the women and girls involved could make a world of a difference.
Determination of medical abortion eligibility by women and community health volunteers in Nepal: A toolkit evaluation
Allow non-allopathists to perform abortions
A mixed methods evaluation of the Youth Focused Social Network Initiative for safe abortion in Rupandehi, Nepal
The Youth Focused Social Network Initiative was a program to increase young women’s knowledge of and skills in accessing comprehensive abortion care in Rupandehi, Nepal from 2012-2014. The program trained peer educators to provide information and support related to comprehensive abortion care and encouraged adults to support youth in their communities. This study evaluated the effectiveness of the program and found that it had produced positive results in youth knowledge of and attitudes about comprehensive abortion care. Program expansion should be considered in light of continued need in Nepal.
Parliament must join the courts in ensuring women’s right to safe abortions
Pathways to safe abortion in Nepal
Improving health worker performance of abortion services: An assessment of post-training support to providers in India, Nepal and Nigeria
Rohingya women have suffered enough. They don’t deserve discriminatory health care
Developing mHealth messages to promote postmenstrual regulation contraceptive use in Bangladesh: Participatory interview study
What factors contribute to postabortion contraceptive uptake by young women? A program evaluation in 10 countries in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa
Gender biased sex selection and access to safe abortion: Frequently asked questions on interlinkages
Woman-Centered MR and Postabortion Care Services, Trainer’s Manual
A better place for women: Abortion care in Nepal a decade after law reform
Empowering women workers through youth-led education on reproductive health and safe abortion in Nepal
Enhancing the quality of abortion care: Successful initiatives to improve clinical skills and facility services
This report looks at initiatives in four countries—Nigeria, Nepal, Ghana and Zambia—where Ipas is working with governments, communities and other partners to provide clinical and programmatic support to providers and health-care facilities.