We’re inspired by our staff and partners around the world who persevere in the face of tremendous challenges. Here are seven changemakers to inspire us all.
In January 2025, violent clashes broke out in Goma, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and North Kivu province, worsening a decades-long conflict and leaving a devastating trail of suffering and destruction.
In Ethiopia, a pilot study on SMA through private pharmacies demonstrates high demand from women and interest from pharmacies in providing women with medication abortion, but Ethiopia’s legal framework presents challenges to a pharmacy-based model.
In forcibly displaced populations, a new study protocol outlines a community-facility capture-recapture approach to better estimate maternal deaths due to abortion complications, helping strengthen measurement where official data is incomplete.
Early in his career, Ipas Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) director Dr. Jean-Claude Mulunda, then a coordinator with a refugee agency, was confronted with the plight of women and girls who had suffered sexual violence fleeing Central African Republic for refuge in DRC.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, research shows that misoprostol was available in less than 50% of pharmacies and mifepristone and misoprostol in less than 2% of surveyed sites. Mystery client interactions reveal that most pharmacists need training on medication abortion counseling and regimens.
In India, a trend analysis shows a substantial increase in self-managed abortion (SMA) with pills between 2014 and 2021 and demonstrates the transformative power of SMA in increasing access to safe and effective abortion.
In Cambodia, an exploration of women’s SMA experiences reveals that young women’s success rates were comparable to those of adult women, and they generally had better experiences than their older counterparts. Young women were more likely to seek support from family and friends, highlighting the important role of social support and the need for accurate information on abortion to be disseminated at the community level.
Ipas’s 2024 research provides crucial evidence on abortion access, care quality, and stigma reduction. With 26 studies in 15 peer-reviewed journals across nine countries, these findings inform policy, improve health services, and advance SRHR worldwide.
Using data from the National Survey of Family Growth in the United States, researchers examined how state-level immigration policies are associated with effective contraceptive method use among US-born and foreign-born Mexican-origin women. Results reveal how exclusionary immigration policies are associated with lower contraceptive use among US- and foreign-born Mexican women.
In Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of Congo, young girls face barriers to their dreams due to unwanted pregnancies and gender-based violence. Limited access to sexual health information and contraception restricts their choices—yet some, like 17-year-old Marie, fight for a brighter future. Read her inspiring story of resilience.