The importance of South Africa as a model for reproductive self-determination in Africa cannot be underestimated. Abortion has been legal since 1996, and the country has some of the most developed government systems for the provision of abortion care on the continent. Yet in the same way opponents of abortion in the United States have whittled away at access with increased bureaucracy, South Africa faces similar assaults that leave women without safe care and threaten to turn back achievements made during the past 16 years. This article explores the history of the law, subsequent legal challenges, and new threats to women’s access to abortion services, including service delivery issues that may influence the future of public health in the country.
Beatriz, a 22-year-old Salvadoran mother with lupus and kidney failure, is pregnant with an anencephalic fetus but continues to be denied a therapeutic abortion by the restrictive law in her country.
Esta publicación es un resumen de la norma y protocolo del Ministerio de Salud de Nicaragua sobre la violencia intrafamiliar y la violencia sexual, con un enfoque en el Protocolo para la Prevención, Detección, y Atención de la Violencia Sexual.
Because Brazilian law only permits abortion in cases of rape, fetal anencephaly, or risk to life, in 2012 the country’s Ministry of Health reported only 1,626 legal abortions in a nation with 203 million people. However, an estimated one million Brazilian women have abortions every year. Many of those women, particularly those without the financial or social resources to see a well-trained, willing provider, run a huge legal risk when they decide to end an unwanted pregnancy. The physical consequences also can be devastating.
To explore the feasibility of educating communities about gynecologic uses for misoprostol at the community level through community-based organizations in countries with restrictive abortion laws, the Public Health Institute and Ipas conducted an operations research study in 2012.
The nation’s top court is scheduled to meet Monday to review a constitutional challenge to the country’s abortion laws and to other policies that impede women’s access to a full range of human rights. A positive decision would mean that for the first time in 41 years, Bolivian women meeting certain conditions for an abortion would be free from criminal sanctions.
La negativa por parte de profesionales de la salud a proporcionar servicios a los que se oponen por motivos morales o religiosos es una barrera significativa para el acceso de las mujeres a servicios de aborto seguro y otros servicios de salud reproductiva. Esta publicación contiene recomendaciones para promulgar leyes y reglamentos que salvaguarden el acceso de las mujeres a los servicios a la vez que protejan el derecho de cada profesional de la salud a la objeción de conciencia. Además, proporciona información sobre las normas de derechos humanos que abordan la negativa por parte de profesionales de la salud, así como una lista de recursos adicionales.
On October 17-18, 2023, the United Nations Human Rights Committee reviews U.S. compliance with the ICCPR, including the impact of Dobbs on its human rights obligations. Global Justice Center, State Innovation Exchange, Amnesty International, Ipas, Human Rights Watch, RH Impact, and Obstetricians for Reproductive Justice submitted this report to the Committee that details the human rights violations caused by Dobbs in the U.S.
This publication provides an overview of the neglected sexual and reproductive health needs and rights of migrant, refugee and displaced women.
A report on the Expanding the Provider Base Workshop hosted by Ipas in 2013. The workshop brought together delegates from nine countries in Africa, Asia and North America and facilitated the sharing of resources and strategies related to expanding the role of non-physician providers in abortion-related care. It details discussion of key topics at the workshop, including the need for and evidence behind expanding cadres of CAC/PAC providers.
In 2012, Ipas undertook an assessment in Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan to determine the specific needs and gaps in the pre-service education systems for midlevel providers and to identify opportunities, strategies and recommendations for creating more equitable access to safe abortion care. Sources for the pre-service assessment include curricular review; government documents; key informant interviews; reports; assessments of provider performance and training; and site observation visits. The assessment results and recommendations in this report focus on Bangladesh.
Recognizing the need to increase access to safe abortion services to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity, in 2011 the Government of Bihar developed a new mechanism of accrediting and subsidizing private health care facilities. The program, Yukti Yojana (“a scheme for solution”), accredits eligible health facilities and supports them in providing abortion-related services free of charge to low-income women. This is the first PPP model in India to ensure access to safe abortion services free of cost at accredited private facilities. This study evaluates the efficacy of the first phase of intervention for scaling up further and replicating the same model in other states.
Support H.R. 3206: The Global Sexual and Reproductive Health Act of 2013, which would ensure access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care that includes safe abortion.
The Hyde and Helms Amendments restrict federal funding for legal abortion care here and abroad and unfairly penalize women for being poor. This is a fact sheet comparing these U.S. policies on abortion.
Esta ficha informativa destaca el impacto desproporcionadamente alto que tienen las leyes que penalizan el aborto en las mujeres jóvenes. En lugares donde el aborto es un crimen, las mujeres que son jóvenes, pobres, con bajo nivel de escolaridad y que enfrentan un embarazo no deseado corren mayor riesgo de recurrir a abortos inseguros e ilegales y, por consiguiente, de ser investigadas, arrestadas y enjuiciadas.
This publication highlights the critical role Ipas Nepal has played in the introduction and expansion of safe abortion services in Nepal since 2002, when abortion was decriminalized. Between July 2011 and December 2013, services provided in Ipas intervention facilities averted an estimated 50 maternal deaths, more than 22,000 unsafe abortions, and saved more than $450,000 in direct health-care costs.
This resource is primarily intended to help legal and policy advocates utilize the concept of privacy to support providers in guaranteeing women’s right to confidential abortion care. Health-care professionals may also find the resource provides useful guidelines on protecting patient privacy. Included is a review of providers’ ethical obligations to maintain confidentiality, a review of human rights protections related to privacy in health care, and an analysis of how confidentiality is treated in different national laws. This resource will also show that requiring providers to report women suspected of obtaining unlawful abortions violates protections of privacy and confidentiality under international human rights law.
This booklet describes Ipas’s work with youth to promote their sexual and reproductive health and rights. With facts and concise explanations—plus illustrative stories from Nepal, South Africa and Ecuador—the booklet highlights the challenges young people face and the opportunities for them to become leaders and work with adults to design policies and health services that are youth appropriate.
This two-page fact sheet is drawn from a report by Ipas and the Great Lakes Initiative for Human Rights and Development on the legal and human rights impact of Rwanda’s 2012 abortion law. The report found that Rwandan police unjustly harass, arrest, prosecute and imprison hundreds of women and girls on abortion or infanticide-related charges each year and calls on the Rwandan government to take steps to address this ongoing human rights violation.