By Anu Kumar, Ipas President and CEO I join so many of my colleagues who live here in the United States in a collective pledge to keep Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s legacy of justice alive. At Ipas, our vision is of a world where everyone can determine their own future. Like...
Tisungane Sitima was one of the first students in the gender and development program at Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources in Malawi—an experience that set her on the path to becoming a champion of sexual and reproductive rights. In this Q & A, she talks about why she became an advocate and her work as chairperson of Ipas Malawi’s initiative to protect access to abortion and contraceptive services during—and beyond—the coronavirus pandemic.
If you haven’t heard of Dr. Tlaleng Mofokeng—known popularly as Dr T—you have somehow missed her ubiquitous presence on radio, TV, social media and numerous other platforms. She’s a medical doctor, sex expert and health activist. She’s a member of the South Africa Commission on Gender Equality and was recently appointed as United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health. Dr. Mofokeng is also the author of A Guide to Sexual Health and Pleasure. She took time from her busy schedule to field some questions from Ipas.
Imagine a world without the stigma surrounding abortion. Abortion would be recognized as health care. People would not be deprived of their right to make their own reproductive decisions. Abortion providers would not be isolated or face physical threats on their...
Humanitarian health workers see with their own eyes every day that people living in crisis settings have acute needs for sexual and reproductive health care—including safe abortion.
Comprehensive sexuality education—that includes information about abortion—is essential for young people to be able to make safe, fully informed decisions about their health.
Amid “two pandemics”— a rising number of COVID-19 infections and a spike in cases of sexual violence against women and girls—a coalition of partners led by Ipas Nigeria is making progress in advancing state-level legislation to combat gender-based violence. A federal...
Ipas Mozambique has a multifaceted approach to ensuring women and girls can still access needed reproductive health care—with minimal risk of COVID-19 infection—during the pandemic.
In 2018, Ipas Central America and Mexico (Ipas CAM) created an informational video in Spanish on how women can safely self-manage an abortion using misoprostol, a safe and effective drug readily available in most pharmacies in Mexico without a prescription. Staff...
The Abortion is Health Care Everywhere Act, introduced in the U.S. Congress on July 29 by Democratic Representative Jan Schakowsky of Illinois, would repeal the Helms Amendment—a racist policy that for nearly 50 years has denied access to abortion services to Black and brown women living in low- and middle-income countries.
With physical access to health facilities in Pakistan severely limited by the country’s rapidly growing number of COVID-19 cases, providing women and girls an alternative way to get reproductive health counseling and information “is the need of the hour,” says Ghulam...
“This pandemic is showing everyone how important a strong public health system is,” says Maria Antonieta Alcalde, director of Ipas Central America and Mexico. Ipas is supporting health systems in Mexico and Central America to ensure abortion and contraception remain...
On July 7, in the midst of a global pandemic, the Trump administration officially started the process of withdrawing from the World Health Organization (WHO). As a public health and human rights organization, Ipas condemns this dangerous and reckless move—one that...
The first three months of India’s national lockdown to combat the spread of COVID-19 compromised abortion access for an estimated 1.85 million women, according to a new study by the Ipas Development Foundation (IDF). Restrictions on travel, combined with the health system focus on battling COVID-19, have significantly impacted three points of access—public health facilities, […]
Malawi has been hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, putting its health system under strain. The number of health-care workers is limited, and some staff have been reassigned to treating COVID-19 patients, leaving clinics that offer sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services understaffed. Travel restrictions are hindering women from accessing clinics, and in areas where […]
The global coronavirus outbreak is a major threat to the health of women and girls globally and is anticipated to disproportionately affect low-resource settings where barriers to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) care already existed. Today, the government of Canada affirmed that the failure to meet women’s and girls’ urgent SRH needs, including abortion, is […]
As committed human rights advocates and caring neighbors, we join in the nation’s collective outrage and pain following the killing of George Floyd and the brutal treatment of so many Black people and people of color. We stand with Black communities around the country in frustration, in anger, in pain and in protest. Hundreds […]
In a letter submitted to the U.S. State Department, Ipas urges the Commission on Unalienable Rights to uphold international human rights commitments and not misuse the right to freedom of religion to violate the right to safe abortion care and the rights of women, girls, and LGBTQ people. The Commission on Unalienable Rights was formed by […]
In Nepal, it’s been illegal to discriminate based on caste since 1962. But a person’s caste still determines their quality of life—from if they have access to education and health care, to what kind of job they can get, to where they can travel. The Musahar community—part of Nepal’s lowest caste, the Sudra—are among the […]
In Nepal, “basic reproductive health information is usually not shared or even spoken about in our communities,” says Radhika Nayaju, program officer for Ipas Nepal. And visually impaired people face additional barriers to accessing information. So Ipas Nepal has been working with the Nepal Health Education, Information and Communication Centre, the Ministry of Health and Population, and […]