For nearly two decades, Ipas Zambia has worked closely with the Ministry of Health to reduce maternal deaths caused by unsafe abortion and to expand access to safe abortion services nationwide. However, despite the progress made, persistent and emerging challenges, including the growing impact of climate change, continue to affect sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR).
Anu Kumar, President and CEO of Ipas, released the following statement in response to the U.S. House of Representatives’ State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs Subcommittee Appropriations Bill’s historic exclusion of the Helms Amendment and critical advances for reproductive justice globally:
As a brutal civil war in the Tigray region of Ethiopia continues, Ipas Ethiopia is taking action to ensure that sexual and reproductive health care services are a priority at more than 125 health facilities across the region—a move prompted by widespread reports that rape and sexual violence are being used against women and girls as a weapon of war.
Legal access to abortion and contraception in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) was officially expanded in 2018, when the Maputo Protocol effectively became the law of the land. But much work remains to make accessible abortion care a reality.
Each year, thousands of young women from across Myanmar migrate to the sprawling Hlaingtharyar industrial zone in Yangon to take factory jobs. But the area has become a hot spot for unsafe abortion. Many of the young workers have little or no knowledge about sexual and reproductive health and rights, putting them on a pathway to unintended pregnancies and abortion by unsafe methods.
Women in Kenya and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) who would like information on abortion and contraception now have a virtual provider they can turn to: Nurse Nisa.