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.

With an eye on major shifts in the abortion landscape, Ipas senior legal advisor Patty Skuster is calling for a more rigorous look at how abortion laws around the world affect public health outcomes.

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 started using the video to train Mexican pharmacy workers so they could advise and support women seeking abortion pills.

The Abortion is Health Care Everywhere Act, first introduced in the U.S. Congress on July 29, 2020 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.

Health workers across India whose pre-pandemic work revolved around providing reproductive health are still working to keep those services available whenever possible. Many are also stepping up to provide COVID-related services as well—even when it means putting their personal lives on hold.

Well before the coronavirus crisis hit Kenya, the Ipas Africa Alliance was using the online platform WhatsApp to stay in touch with health professionals who are trained to provide abortion care throughout the country. Now, that communication is more valuable than ever.