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By Anu Kumar, Ipas President and CEO Well, now we know—President Trump has nominated Brett Kavanaugh to fill Justice Kennedy’s U.S. Supreme Court seat. When Justice Kennedy announced he’ll retire at the end of July, there was a collective panic attack on the part of thousands of us who work to protect reproductive rights. Kennedy […]

A new online toolkit that is designed to improve access to contraception and abortion care for the millions of women and girls living in refugee camps and other crisis settings is now available from Ipas. Release of the toolkit coincides with World Refugee Day. Worldwide, there are more than 135 million people in need of humanitarian assistance. Of […]

Statement from Anu Kumar, Ipas President and CEO: We at Ipas are heartened by the Irish people’s vote to repeal the country’s constitutional amendment criminalizing abortion. It is a true step forward and a lifesaving vote for women. Ireland’s staunch position against abortion has, in fact, been lethal. Savita Hallapanavar’s death after being denied an abortion in […]

By Anu Kumar, Ipas President and CEO When I first learned about the issue of maternal mortality as a student, I remember being shocked at the numbers and shocked at the stark disparity in who is dying. There is a good reason that maternal mortality is used as an indicator of inequality between and within […]

Accelerate Progress, a report published today in The Lancet,outlines a bold agenda to achieve universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights. Accelerate Progress emphasizes the need for national governments, international organizations, donors, civil society groups and key stakeholders to adopt a holistic approach to reproductive health services. This approach encompasses the “right of all individuals […]

The Ipas Board of Directors today named Anu Kumar as President and CEO of Ipas, effective immediately. Kumar, an anthropologist and public health expert, joined Ipas in 2002 and has served as Interim President and CEO for the past six months. “We are thrilled Dr. Kumar has accepted this new and challenging role. There is […]

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 […]

In August 2017, the brutal wave of violence directed at the Rohingya community in Myanmar reached the home of Noor (a pseudonym). Her husband was at the mosque, while she stayed at home to pray. Suddenly, she heard villagers screaming and the sound of gunshots. She immediately took her son and ran from the house. […]

Azeda is in her early 20s. She fled Myanmar in September 2017 to escape the wave of violence against the Rohingya community. But soon after she and her three children arrived at the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh, her husband left her. She was just a few weeks pregnant. Knowing how difficult it would be […]

In October 2017, 22-year-old Toyoba fled to Bangladesh to escape the wave of violence against the Rohingya in Myanmar. She escaped with her husband, three children and other family members. Her brother was killed by the army and many relatives are still missing. “It was intolerable torture continuing in Myanmar …We had to flee in […]

Montaz is one of the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya who have fled Myanmar to Bangladesh in recent months. Soon after she, her husband and three children arrived at the refugee camps in Bangladesh, she realized she was pregnant. On the advice of a neighbor in the camp, her husband bought medicine from a local […]