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Abortion Care

IPPF works to ensure that every woman and girl has the human right to choose to be pregnant or not and we will continue to supply and support safe and legal abortion services and care. We are committed to reducing the number of deaths of women and girls who are forced to turn to unsafe abortion methods. Make Abortion Safe. Make Abortion Legal. For all Women and Girls. Everywhere.

Articles by Abortion Care

sexual-reproductive-health-Africa
25 October 2022

IPPFAR Statement: Expanding Access to Abortion Care: Regional Safe Abortion Dialogue in Francophone Africa

24 October 2022. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 45% of all abortions are unsafe and almost all of these occur in developing countries[1]. An unsafe abortion is a procedure for terminating an unwanted pregnancy either by persons lacking the necessary skills or in an environment lacking minimal medical standards or both. Unsafe abortions result in the deaths of 47,000 women every year and leaves millions temporarily or permanently disabled[2]. An estimated 93% of women of reproductive age in Africa live in countries with restrictive abortion laws[3]. This means that the countries’ laws only permit abortion in certain cases, often only if there is risk to the woman’s life, her health, the pregnancy is the result of rape, or there is evidence of foetal impairment. On this first-day of the Regional Safe Abortion Dialogue, organized by the Organisation pour le Dialogue sur l'Avortement Sécurisé (ODAS), IPPF Africa Region reaffirms its commitment to championing and providing abortion care and reducing the number of deaths of women and girls who are forced to turn to unsafe abortion methods for fear of arrests and harassment. IPPF Africa Region would also like to amplify the statement made by the  Honourable Commissioner Janet R Sallah-Njie, the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Women in Africa at the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights, African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights Pressrelease (achpr.org) urging State Parties to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (the African Charter) to honour their commitments under the African Charter; and the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (the Maputo Protocol or Protocol), by decriminalising abortion in their respective countries. “We applaud ODAS and all the other partnerships and actors who are working tirelessly to expand access to abortion care. Almost 90% of abortions in countries with liberal abortion laws are considered safe, compared to only 25% in countries where abortion is banned. This is a gross violation of human rights. Medical abortion has revolutionised access to care and safe abortion, both inside and outside the health system; and safe and effective abortion self-care means that people can now safely terminate their pregnancies in the privacy of their own homes. These advances must be protected,” said Marie-Evelyne Petrus-Barry, Regional Director of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, Africa Region. “Ensuring accessing to abortion care is critical for the complete fulfilment of sexual and reproductive health and rights”, added Comlan Christian Agbozo, the Executive Director of the Association Béninoise pour la Promotion de la Famille (ABPF). “As one of the leading providers of sexual and reproductive health services in Benin, we are very fortunate that the new law passed in Benin in November 2021, is providing women with expanded options to access abortion care in instances that they may not want, or be able, to continue with a pregnancy.” The International Planned Parenthood Federation Africa Region (IPPFAR) is one of the leading providers of quality sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services in Africa and a prominent sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) advocacy voice in the region. For more updates on our work, follow IPPF Africa Region on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and You Tube. [1] Abortion (who.int) [2] WHO | Preventing unsafe abortion [3] Abortion in Africa | Guttmacher Institute

sexual-reproductive-health-Africa
29 September 2022

Copper Rose Zambia: Increasing awareness on safe abortion in Zambia

By Buumba Siamalube, Advocacy and Youth Engagement Manager, Copper Rose Zambia Although abortion is technically legal in Zambia, the reality of getting an abortion is far more complicated. The abortion law has many barriers in practice, policy and implementation levels. This has contributed to unsafe abortions which remain a significant problem causing deaths and disability across the country. Although evidence on the incidence and consequences of unsafe abortion in recent years is scarce, studies from the early 2000’s identify the common methods used across the country, such as ingesting toxins like detergent and inserting cassava sticks in the cervix. While information and utilization of legal abortion is becoming more common, high levels of unsafe abortions continue to persist. Despite the many barriers to access safe abortions, Zambia has among the most liberal abortion policies in Sub-Saharan African. The Termination of Pregnancy (TOP) Act of 1972 permits abortion in Zambia under the following circumstances: the pregnancy causes risk to the life of the pregnant woman; risk of injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman; risk of injury to the physical or mental health of any existing children of the woman, greater than if the pregnancy were terminated; or if there is substantial risk of fetal malformation. Further, the law states that if the continuance of a pregnancy would involve great risk, account may be taken of the pregnant woman's environment or of her age. Further amendments to the Penal Code have allowed for abortion in cases of rape and incest.  In an effort to raise awareness on safe abortion, Copper Rose Zambia (CRZ) has worked in Petauke and Nyimba districts of Eastern province on the Safe Reproductive Health Awareness Project. The project involved engaging stakeholders to raise awareness on safe abortion services being offered at various rural health facilities in the districts. The goal of the project was to reduce unsafe abortions among adolescents and young girls in the Eastern Province of Zambia. In 2020, the province recorded over 12,000 teenage pregnancies and over 1,000 complications resulting from unsafe abortions majority being from Nyimba and Petauke. Copper Rose Zambia led safe abortion awareness community outreaches at one of the colleges providing health sciences in the district. We sensitized the students on the laws available in Zambia with regards to Termination of Pregnancy (TOP) and the services offered at health facilities. The response from the students was positive as most of them did not know that safe abortion is legal in Zambia and that health facilities offers such services – they shared that this information is not readily available to most Zambians because of cultural stigma and religious beliefs. Through this work we met a 21-year-old girl called Chisomo. She told us that she had unprotected sex and became pregnant. She thought it was best to terminate the pregnancy because she was still in school. During one of our community awareness sessions, Chisomo reached out to the CRZ peer educators for guidance as she was planning to visit a witch doctor for an unsafe abortion. CRZ shared more information with her and referred her to the hospital for a safe abortion. Following up with her, CRZ found that when she reached the hospital, she was sent to a safe abortion screening room, the service provider who was in charge of conducting the service asked her a number of uncomfortable questions and later told her she couldn’t perform the abortion on her because she was young and it’s a sin to terminate a pregnancy for “no reason”. The health care provider imposed her beliefs about abortion and hence this made the girl very uncomfortable. She left the facility and the service was not performed. Days later, her parents were informed that their daughter visited the health facility for an abortion. Chisomo was forced to go through the pregnancy causing her to drop out of school and raise the child on her own. This shows the many layers of barriers a young woman can face trying to access healthcare. To this end, we continue to deliberately share information on safe abortion in many areas of our work. For example, on the Safe Abortion Project, CRZ focused on training health care providers in Values Clarification and Attitude Transformation so that their beliefs are not imposed on their clients. As the project was being implemented, it was found that there is a need to shift mindsets of health care providers in order to allow more young women access to safe abortion services at health facilities. CRZ firmly believes in access to information so that women can make the right decisions for themselves. Copper Rose Zambia (CRZ) is a grantee partner of the Safe Abortion Action Fund (SAAF) a global abortion fund hosted by IPPF. For more updates on our work, follow IPPF Africa Region on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and You Tube.

IPPF_Tommy Trenchard_Botswana

U.S Supreme court overturns Roe v. Wade in biggest blow to women's health and rights in recent history

Nairobi – 25 June 2022 – The decision by the US Supreme Court to overturn the landmark Roe V Wade on abortion will trigger total or near total bans on abortion care in approximately 26 states across the United States of America. This decision not only affects the United States but undoubtedly we will see a ripple effect across the world. Overturning Roe v. Wade is the biggest blow to women's health and rights in recent U.S history. It removes 50 years of safe and legal abortion across the U.S. and puts the lives of millions of women, girls and gender diverse people into the hands of state legislators – many of whom are Conservative extremists who are anti-woman, anti-LGBTI+ and anti-gender. By continuing this attack on women's bodies and forcing them to carry pregnancies to term, the highest court in the United States has reached its lowest point, robbing millions of their liberty, bodily autonomy and freedom - the very values the United States prides itself on. The decision is also out of step with the America people, the majority of whom support access to abortion care. "The fallout from this calculated decision will also reverberate worldwide, emboldening other anti-abortion, anti-woman and anti-gender movements and impacting other reproductive freedoms. The justices who put their personal beliefs ahead of American will, precedent and law will soon have blood on their hands, and we are devastated for the millions of people who will suffer from this cruel judgment", said Dr Alvaro Bermejo, Director of the International Planned Parenthood Federation. “We know from our experience in sexual and reproductive health and rights that extremist groups and lawmakers opposed to gender equality have fought long and hard to control women’s and girls’ bodies. These groups play politics with the bodily integrity of women and girls, denying scientific findings and challenging well-grounded evidence that banning abortion does not stop women from choosing to have the procedure, only forcing them to turn to potentially dangerous alternatives. These groups also force health care providers to choose between saving a woman’s life and facing criminal charges. There is no such thing as preventing abortion; there is only banning safe abortion”, said Marie-Evelyne Petrus-Barry, International Planned Parenthood Federation, Africa Region (IPPFAR) Regional Director.  She further added that “while the US may be regressing and rolling back on the human rights of women and girls, we now look to other countries including Benin and Kenya, which have recently signalled their commitment to protecting and fulfilling the rights of women and girls to access safe abortion care. These countries now lead the charge, and we as global voices in reproductive rights worldwide, must continue working hard to make these rights a reality, while maintaining and building on them.”  END Media Contacts: Mahmoud Garga, Lead Specialist - Strategic Communication, Media Relations and Digital Campaigning, IPPF Africa Regional Office (IPPFARO) – email: [email protected] -Phone +254 704 626 920 ABOUT IPPF AFRICA REGION (IPPFAR) The International Planned Parenthood Federation Africa Region (IPPFAR) is one of the leading sexual and reproductive health (SRH) service delivery organization in Africa, and a leading sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) advocacy voice in the region. Headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, the overarching goal of IPPFAR is to increase access to SRHR services to the most vulnerable youth, men and women in sub-Saharan Africa. Supported by thousands of volunteers, IPPFAR tackles the continent’s growing SRHR challenges through a network of Member Associations (MAs) in 40 countries. We do this by developing our MAs into efficient entities with the capacity to deliver and sustain high quality, youth focused and gender sensitive services. We work with Governments, the African Union, Regional Economic Commissions, the Pan-African Parliament, United Nations bodies among others to expand political and financial commitments to sexual and reproductive health and rights in Africa. Learn more about us on our website. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.  

IPPF_Georgina Goodwin_Burundi
31 January 2022

Frontiers in SRHR Access for Women and Youth

The project objective is to improve access to Abortion Self Care (ASC), youth empowerment, and strengthening the use of digital interventions. Budget:  1,500,000 USD Donor: The David & Lucile Packard Foundation Timeline: 2 Years ( January 2021 -  December 2022 ) Project implementation areas: Cameroon, Ghana, Cambodia, and India Partners: CAMNAFAW, PPAG,RHAC, FPAI, Ipas, Y-Labs, and IBIS Key achievements to date: Youth engagement in SRHR advocacy ASC as an option for all clients Digital/m health to increase access to SRHR and CSE Influence national guidelines and policies Review of IPPF IMAP- integrating ASC Generating leanings & sharing Building capacities of start-ups ( YSVF) Virtual immersion program Innovative approaches: Access to SRHR and CSE through digital/m health YSVF -  working with young entrepreneurs to accelerate & enhance existing SRHR solutions Lessons learned: Aggregating client data in DHI, DHIs works best in hybrid models compared to stand-alone models, multi-language engagement

Safe Abortion Action Fund
30 March 2017

Safe Abortion Action Fund

The Safe Abortion Action Fund (SAAF) was established in 2006, in response to the US government's Global Gag Rule, as a multi‑donor mechanism to support global abortion‑related programming. Hosted by IPPF, SAAF provides small grants to locally-run organisations that promote safe abortion and prevent unsafe abortion through advocacy and awareness raising, service delivery and research activities, and has supported such projects for over a decade. SAAF Supports projects run by IPPF Member Associations as well as other organisations not affiliated with IPPF. By the end of 2016 SAAF had provided US$43 million funding to 188 projects in over 62 countries. SAAF focuses on the needs of the marginalized and most vulnerable women and girls. By visibly funding projects using an international funding mechanism, SAAF works to destigmatize abortion and to legitimize the abortion debate. For more information about the fund visit the SAAF website www.saafund.org.

Girls Decide landing image
30 June 2016

Girls Decide

This programme addresses critical challenges faced by young women around sexual health and sexuality. It has produced a range of advocacy, education and informational materials to support research, awareness-raising, advocacy and service delivery.    Girls Decide is about the sexual and reproductive health and rights of girls and young women. Around the world, girls aged 10 to 19 account for 23% of all disease associated with pregnancy and childbirth. An estimated 2.5 million have unsafe abortions every year. Worldwide, young women account for 60% of the 5.5 million young people living with HIV and/or AIDS. Girls Decide has produced a range of advocacy, education and informational materials to support work to improve sexual health and rights for girls and young women. These include a series of films on sexual and reproductive health decisions faced by 6 young women in 6 different countries. The films won the prestigious International Video and Communications Award (IVCA). When girls and young women have access to critical lifesaving services and information, and when they are able to make meaningful choices about their life path, they are empowered. Their quality of life improves, as does the well-being of their families and the communities in which they live. Their collective ability to achieve internationally agreed development goals is strengthened. Almost all IPPF Member Associations provide services to young people and 1 in every 3 clients is a young person below the age of 25. All young women and girls are rights-holders and are entitled to sexual and reproductive rights. As a matter of principle, the IPPF Secretariat and Member Associations stand by girls by respecting and fulfilling their right to high quality services; they stand up for girls by supporting them in making their own decisions related to sexuality and pregnancy; they stand for sexual and reproductive rights by addressing the challenges faced by young women and girls at local, national and international levels.

Boy holding a sign "Keep abortion safe and legal".
05 May 2016

Tackling abortion stigma

Abortion stigma affects women and girls, abortion providers, reproductive rights advocates and communities. Although abortion is a common experience around the world, it is still largely stigmatised. Negative attitudes and beliefs about abortion may act as barriers to accessing safe services and can make it difficult for people to talk about their experiences of abortion. This can be very isolating, and may force people to continue unwanted pregnancies or to seek unsafe abortion. Since 2011 the David & Lucile Packard Foundation has supported IPPF to implement a range of initiatives to investigate and address abortion stigma. Find out more here, about the effective strategies and learning over the course of this project. It is often young people who are most severely affected by abortion stigma, and who are most at risk of suffering health complications as a result of unsafe abortion. Since 2014 IPPF has delivered a project focused on abortion stigma as it affects young people’s access to services, with targeted work in our Member Associations in Benin, Burkina Faso, India and Pakistan. This builds on previous initiatives and includes: Implementing individual, community and clinic-based interventions in the four countries where abortion stigma research was conducted under the previous grant. Abortion stigma at the community level will be measured at the beginning and end of each project using an adapted version of the Stigmatizing Attitudes, Beliefs and Actions Scale (SABAS) developed by Ipas Developing global guidance and tools to improve abortion messaging to ensure abortion is integrated into peer educator training and better raise awareness of abortion-related services to young people Building capacity of youth advocates to speak out on the right to access abortion services Generating and sharing of evidence and good practices on addressing abortion stigma   In addition to the abortion stigma work supported by the Packard Foundation, the IPPF Western Hemisphere Region (WHR) has been conducting a research study in collaboration with Ibis Reproductive Health to better understand the effects that the provision of abortion-related services have on providers’ and clients’ perceptions and experiences of stigma. This research has been conducted in four countries with different legal contexts and varying degrees of access to services: the Dominican Republic, Uruguay, Colombia, and Argentina. WHR is also working with the University of Michigan to pilot facilitated group workshops to reduce stigma and foster resilience among abortion service providers in Colombia, Argentina, Bolivia, Mexico and Peru. Through this project IPPF has created a range of tools and resources to support understanding of abortion stigma and to increase the capacity of our Member Associations to advocate for safe abortion, and to provide non-stigmatising education and information. How to talk about abortion: A guide for journalists, editors and media outlets encourages accurate reporting of the facts about abortion, and honest portrayals of abortion as part of real people’s lives and relationships. How to educate about abortion: A guide for peer educators, trainers and teachers is a comprehensive guide providing the rationale for teaching about abortion issues, as well a number of practical activities for doing so. The accompanying short animation distills this advice into just two minutes! ​​​​​​ How to talk about abortion: A guide to rights-based messaging is designed to help individuals and organizations think about the language and images they use to communicate about abortion and offers best practice tips. Again, a short animation has been created to share these tips further Our Member Associations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cameroon, Ghana, and Pakistan have shared best practices for improving young people’s access to safe abortion services. These feature strategies based on: creating a ‘buddy system’ for young people accessing services, working with educational establishments, using social media, and youth friendly spaces respectively.   In 2015, young people from IPPF Member Associations in Spain, Nepal, Macedonia, Ghana and Palestine were awarded small grants to support projects focused on tackling abortion stigma. Read more about these youth-led projects.    The ‘Youth Against Abortion Stigma’ website features blogposts from young IPPF volunteers around the world. In 2017, young people from IPPF Member Associations in Guinea, Kenya, Nepal, Puerto Rico, Sierra Leone and Venezuela were awarded small grants to support youth-led projects focused on tackling abortion stigma.  SEE OUR RESULTS

Saaf
21 January 2022

SAAF funding: Grants for organisations working on abortion

The IPPF hosted Safe Abortion Action Fund (SAAF) is accepting funding applications from organizations in low- and middle-income countries working on any aspect of abortion care, research, education, and advocacy. Please note that only organizations on the list of eligible countries are able to apply. Applications can be sent in English, French or Spanish using the online form and funding guidance on our website. Get your application in before 20 February 2022! https://saafund.org/apply-for-funding Hosted by IPPF, SAAF provides small grants to locally-run organizations that promote safe abortion and prevent unsafe abortion through advocacy and awareness-raising, service delivery, and research activities, and has supported such projects for over a decade. SAAF Supports projects run by IPPF Member Associations as well as other organizations not affiliated with IPPF. For more information about the fund visit the SAAF website www.saafund.org.

abortion care
29 September 2021

How Women’s Access to Safe Abortion will Change in the Next Five Years

Numbers don’t lie: Between 2015 and 2019, on average, 73.3 million induced (safe and unsafe) abortions occurred worldwide each year. Every year, between 4.7% – 13.2% of maternal deaths can be attributed to unsafe abortion. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines unsafe abortion as a procedure for terminating an unwanted pregnancy either by persons lacking the necessary skills or in an environment lacking minimal medical standards or both. Unsafe abortions result in the deaths of 47,000 women every year and leaves millions temporarily or permanently disabled[1]. In Africa, nearly half of all abortions happen in the least safe circumstances. Moreover, mortality from unsafe abortion disproportionately affects women in Africa. While the continent accounts for 29% of all unsafe abortions, it sees 62% of unsafe abortion-related deaths (WHO). An estimated 93% of women of reproductive age in Africa live in countries with restrictive abortion laws. This means that the country’s laws only permit abortion in certain cases, often only if there is risk to the woman’s life, her health, the pregnancy is the result of rape, or there is evidence of foetal impairment. The costs of treating medical complications from unsafe abortion constitute a significant financial burden for developing countries’ public health care systems. Further, the more restrictive the legal setting, the higher the proportion of unsafe abortions. Statistics from unsafe abortions give us a glimpse into the suffering women must endure to end an unwanted pregnancy. We must challenge, re-evaluate different countries’ positions on the provision of life-saving safe-abortion care. We must advocate for changes in laws and policies and push-for the uptake of targeted and budgeted approaches that reach women and girls with safe abortion and contraception services wherever they are. IPPF and other key stakeholders are working towards ensuring that in the next five years, more women and girls will access abortion services differently, as the solutions to terminate a pregnancy will be more easily understood and available through self-managed medical abortion. This new approach promises to radically transform how health care is perceived and accessed by firmly placing women and girls at the centre of the abortion process; shifting the power dynamic from a medicalized and provider-led/decided approach to one that is person-centred and guarantees bodily autonomy. Where women can take control of their bodies and decide when and if to have children; whilst being supported by the healthcare system if needed. Also Read: Safe abortion in the context of COVID-19: partnership, dialogue and digital innovation This approach has been endorsed by WHO and is detailed within the newly released self-care guidelines. Several studies  have confirmed that self-managed abortion is safe, effective, and not inferior to those performed in clinical settings. A recent WHO review revealed that 94–96% of self-managed abortions had similar success rates to those conducted in clinic-based settings. In fact, 90% of clients confirmed they would recommend self-managed medical abortion. As local and global actors working for women’s health, rights and bodily autonomy, we must champion and roll out such new models and approaches that uphold, protect and champion women’s health, sexual rights and reproductive justice. Last July, IPPF joined global actors at the Generation Equality Forum to define and announce ambitious investments and policies for women and girls worldwide. Among our bold commitments, was a resolve to “expand and improve the provision of abortion care through 102 Member Associations, including quality medical and surgical abortion, person-centered abortion self-care support, and abortion care beyond 12 weeks of gestation through a simplified outpatient model using task-shifting to mid-level providers, including self-managed medical abortion.” This is a bold pledge that cannot depend on IPPF alone. It is critical if we are to reach the target of making the self-management of abortion a reality by 2026. Among others, IPPF calls upon the global ecosystem; feminist movements and civil-society organisations to continue to counter the multiple barriers i.e., legal, cultural, social and religious, that impede women from accessing safe abortion freely. Also Read: Abortion Quality of Care from the Client Perspective: a Qualitative Study in India and Kenya IPPF also calls upon policy and decision-makers to uphold their sexual reproductive health and rights (SRHR) commitments and repeal laws and policies that prevent safe abortion. We ask donors to invest in commodities and essential supplies, service delivery partners and prioritize research that promotes this approach. We also urge local and national stakeholders and service providers to embrace this new approach by encouraging, providing and supporting the integration of new models of abortion service delivery within existing clinic-based services. Self-care is not a magic bullet, and neither will this radical change happen by chance. It takes all of us to make it happen. This is not just a question of access. It is a fundamental question of freedom, empowerment, and bodily autonomy. Read more about The Global Comprehensive Abortion Care Initiative (GCACI). By Marie-Evelyne Petrus-Barry, Regional Director, International Planned Parenthood Federation, Africa Region (IPPFAR). Marie-Evelyne Petrus-Barry is the Regional Director of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, Africa Region (IPPFAR). The International Planned Parenthood Federation Africa Region (IPPFAR) is one of the leading providers of quality sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services in Africa and a leading sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) advocacy voice in the region.   For more updates on our work, follow IPPF Africa Region on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and You Tube.

sexual-reproductive-health-Africa
25 October 2022

IPPFAR Statement: Expanding Access to Abortion Care: Regional Safe Abortion Dialogue in Francophone Africa

24 October 2022. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 45% of all abortions are unsafe and almost all of these occur in developing countries[1]. An unsafe abortion is a procedure for terminating an unwanted pregnancy either by persons lacking the necessary skills or in an environment lacking minimal medical standards or both. Unsafe abortions result in the deaths of 47,000 women every year and leaves millions temporarily or permanently disabled[2]. An estimated 93% of women of reproductive age in Africa live in countries with restrictive abortion laws[3]. This means that the countries’ laws only permit abortion in certain cases, often only if there is risk to the woman’s life, her health, the pregnancy is the result of rape, or there is evidence of foetal impairment. On this first-day of the Regional Safe Abortion Dialogue, organized by the Organisation pour le Dialogue sur l'Avortement Sécurisé (ODAS), IPPF Africa Region reaffirms its commitment to championing and providing abortion care and reducing the number of deaths of women and girls who are forced to turn to unsafe abortion methods for fear of arrests and harassment. IPPF Africa Region would also like to amplify the statement made by the  Honourable Commissioner Janet R Sallah-Njie, the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Women in Africa at the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights, African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights Pressrelease (achpr.org) urging State Parties to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (the African Charter) to honour their commitments under the African Charter; and the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (the Maputo Protocol or Protocol), by decriminalising abortion in their respective countries. “We applaud ODAS and all the other partnerships and actors who are working tirelessly to expand access to abortion care. Almost 90% of abortions in countries with liberal abortion laws are considered safe, compared to only 25% in countries where abortion is banned. This is a gross violation of human rights. Medical abortion has revolutionised access to care and safe abortion, both inside and outside the health system; and safe and effective abortion self-care means that people can now safely terminate their pregnancies in the privacy of their own homes. These advances must be protected,” said Marie-Evelyne Petrus-Barry, Regional Director of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, Africa Region. “Ensuring accessing to abortion care is critical for the complete fulfilment of sexual and reproductive health and rights”, added Comlan Christian Agbozo, the Executive Director of the Association Béninoise pour la Promotion de la Famille (ABPF). “As one of the leading providers of sexual and reproductive health services in Benin, we are very fortunate that the new law passed in Benin in November 2021, is providing women with expanded options to access abortion care in instances that they may not want, or be able, to continue with a pregnancy.” The International Planned Parenthood Federation Africa Region (IPPFAR) is one of the leading providers of quality sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services in Africa and a prominent sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) advocacy voice in the region. For more updates on our work, follow IPPF Africa Region on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and You Tube. [1] Abortion (who.int) [2] WHO | Preventing unsafe abortion [3] Abortion in Africa | Guttmacher Institute

sexual-reproductive-health-Africa
29 September 2022

Copper Rose Zambia: Increasing awareness on safe abortion in Zambia

By Buumba Siamalube, Advocacy and Youth Engagement Manager, Copper Rose Zambia Although abortion is technically legal in Zambia, the reality of getting an abortion is far more complicated. The abortion law has many barriers in practice, policy and implementation levels. This has contributed to unsafe abortions which remain a significant problem causing deaths and disability across the country. Although evidence on the incidence and consequences of unsafe abortion in recent years is scarce, studies from the early 2000’s identify the common methods used across the country, such as ingesting toxins like detergent and inserting cassava sticks in the cervix. While information and utilization of legal abortion is becoming more common, high levels of unsafe abortions continue to persist. Despite the many barriers to access safe abortions, Zambia has among the most liberal abortion policies in Sub-Saharan African. The Termination of Pregnancy (TOP) Act of 1972 permits abortion in Zambia under the following circumstances: the pregnancy causes risk to the life of the pregnant woman; risk of injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman; risk of injury to the physical or mental health of any existing children of the woman, greater than if the pregnancy were terminated; or if there is substantial risk of fetal malformation. Further, the law states that if the continuance of a pregnancy would involve great risk, account may be taken of the pregnant woman's environment or of her age. Further amendments to the Penal Code have allowed for abortion in cases of rape and incest.  In an effort to raise awareness on safe abortion, Copper Rose Zambia (CRZ) has worked in Petauke and Nyimba districts of Eastern province on the Safe Reproductive Health Awareness Project. The project involved engaging stakeholders to raise awareness on safe abortion services being offered at various rural health facilities in the districts. The goal of the project was to reduce unsafe abortions among adolescents and young girls in the Eastern Province of Zambia. In 2020, the province recorded over 12,000 teenage pregnancies and over 1,000 complications resulting from unsafe abortions majority being from Nyimba and Petauke. Copper Rose Zambia led safe abortion awareness community outreaches at one of the colleges providing health sciences in the district. We sensitized the students on the laws available in Zambia with regards to Termination of Pregnancy (TOP) and the services offered at health facilities. The response from the students was positive as most of them did not know that safe abortion is legal in Zambia and that health facilities offers such services – they shared that this information is not readily available to most Zambians because of cultural stigma and religious beliefs. Through this work we met a 21-year-old girl called Chisomo. She told us that she had unprotected sex and became pregnant. She thought it was best to terminate the pregnancy because she was still in school. During one of our community awareness sessions, Chisomo reached out to the CRZ peer educators for guidance as she was planning to visit a witch doctor for an unsafe abortion. CRZ shared more information with her and referred her to the hospital for a safe abortion. Following up with her, CRZ found that when she reached the hospital, she was sent to a safe abortion screening room, the service provider who was in charge of conducting the service asked her a number of uncomfortable questions and later told her she couldn’t perform the abortion on her because she was young and it’s a sin to terminate a pregnancy for “no reason”. The health care provider imposed her beliefs about abortion and hence this made the girl very uncomfortable. She left the facility and the service was not performed. Days later, her parents were informed that their daughter visited the health facility for an abortion. Chisomo was forced to go through the pregnancy causing her to drop out of school and raise the child on her own. This shows the many layers of barriers a young woman can face trying to access healthcare. To this end, we continue to deliberately share information on safe abortion in many areas of our work. For example, on the Safe Abortion Project, CRZ focused on training health care providers in Values Clarification and Attitude Transformation so that their beliefs are not imposed on their clients. As the project was being implemented, it was found that there is a need to shift mindsets of health care providers in order to allow more young women access to safe abortion services at health facilities. CRZ firmly believes in access to information so that women can make the right decisions for themselves. Copper Rose Zambia (CRZ) is a grantee partner of the Safe Abortion Action Fund (SAAF) a global abortion fund hosted by IPPF. For more updates on our work, follow IPPF Africa Region on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and You Tube.

IPPF_Tommy Trenchard_Botswana

U.S Supreme court overturns Roe v. Wade in biggest blow to women's health and rights in recent history

Nairobi – 25 June 2022 – The decision by the US Supreme Court to overturn the landmark Roe V Wade on abortion will trigger total or near total bans on abortion care in approximately 26 states across the United States of America. This decision not only affects the United States but undoubtedly we will see a ripple effect across the world. Overturning Roe v. Wade is the biggest blow to women's health and rights in recent U.S history. It removes 50 years of safe and legal abortion across the U.S. and puts the lives of millions of women, girls and gender diverse people into the hands of state legislators – many of whom are Conservative extremists who are anti-woman, anti-LGBTI+ and anti-gender. By continuing this attack on women's bodies and forcing them to carry pregnancies to term, the highest court in the United States has reached its lowest point, robbing millions of their liberty, bodily autonomy and freedom - the very values the United States prides itself on. The decision is also out of step with the America people, the majority of whom support access to abortion care. "The fallout from this calculated decision will also reverberate worldwide, emboldening other anti-abortion, anti-woman and anti-gender movements and impacting other reproductive freedoms. The justices who put their personal beliefs ahead of American will, precedent and law will soon have blood on their hands, and we are devastated for the millions of people who will suffer from this cruel judgment", said Dr Alvaro Bermejo, Director of the International Planned Parenthood Federation. “We know from our experience in sexual and reproductive health and rights that extremist groups and lawmakers opposed to gender equality have fought long and hard to control women’s and girls’ bodies. These groups play politics with the bodily integrity of women and girls, denying scientific findings and challenging well-grounded evidence that banning abortion does not stop women from choosing to have the procedure, only forcing them to turn to potentially dangerous alternatives. These groups also force health care providers to choose between saving a woman’s life and facing criminal charges. There is no such thing as preventing abortion; there is only banning safe abortion”, said Marie-Evelyne Petrus-Barry, International Planned Parenthood Federation, Africa Region (IPPFAR) Regional Director.  She further added that “while the US may be regressing and rolling back on the human rights of women and girls, we now look to other countries including Benin and Kenya, which have recently signalled their commitment to protecting and fulfilling the rights of women and girls to access safe abortion care. These countries now lead the charge, and we as global voices in reproductive rights worldwide, must continue working hard to make these rights a reality, while maintaining and building on them.”  END Media Contacts: Mahmoud Garga, Lead Specialist - Strategic Communication, Media Relations and Digital Campaigning, IPPF Africa Regional Office (IPPFARO) – email: [email protected] -Phone +254 704 626 920 ABOUT IPPF AFRICA REGION (IPPFAR) The International Planned Parenthood Federation Africa Region (IPPFAR) is one of the leading sexual and reproductive health (SRH) service delivery organization in Africa, and a leading sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) advocacy voice in the region. Headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, the overarching goal of IPPFAR is to increase access to SRHR services to the most vulnerable youth, men and women in sub-Saharan Africa. Supported by thousands of volunteers, IPPFAR tackles the continent’s growing SRHR challenges through a network of Member Associations (MAs) in 40 countries. We do this by developing our MAs into efficient entities with the capacity to deliver and sustain high quality, youth focused and gender sensitive services. We work with Governments, the African Union, Regional Economic Commissions, the Pan-African Parliament, United Nations bodies among others to expand political and financial commitments to sexual and reproductive health and rights in Africa. Learn more about us on our website. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.  

IPPF_Georgina Goodwin_Burundi
31 January 2022

Frontiers in SRHR Access for Women and Youth

The project objective is to improve access to Abortion Self Care (ASC), youth empowerment, and strengthening the use of digital interventions. Budget:  1,500,000 USD Donor: The David & Lucile Packard Foundation Timeline: 2 Years ( January 2021 -  December 2022 ) Project implementation areas: Cameroon, Ghana, Cambodia, and India Partners: CAMNAFAW, PPAG,RHAC, FPAI, Ipas, Y-Labs, and IBIS Key achievements to date: Youth engagement in SRHR advocacy ASC as an option for all clients Digital/m health to increase access to SRHR and CSE Influence national guidelines and policies Review of IPPF IMAP- integrating ASC Generating leanings & sharing Building capacities of start-ups ( YSVF) Virtual immersion program Innovative approaches: Access to SRHR and CSE through digital/m health YSVF -  working with young entrepreneurs to accelerate & enhance existing SRHR solutions Lessons learned: Aggregating client data in DHI, DHIs works best in hybrid models compared to stand-alone models, multi-language engagement

Safe Abortion Action Fund
30 March 2017

Safe Abortion Action Fund

The Safe Abortion Action Fund (SAAF) was established in 2006, in response to the US government's Global Gag Rule, as a multi‑donor mechanism to support global abortion‑related programming. Hosted by IPPF, SAAF provides small grants to locally-run organisations that promote safe abortion and prevent unsafe abortion through advocacy and awareness raising, service delivery and research activities, and has supported such projects for over a decade. SAAF Supports projects run by IPPF Member Associations as well as other organisations not affiliated with IPPF. By the end of 2016 SAAF had provided US$43 million funding to 188 projects in over 62 countries. SAAF focuses on the needs of the marginalized and most vulnerable women and girls. By visibly funding projects using an international funding mechanism, SAAF works to destigmatize abortion and to legitimize the abortion debate. For more information about the fund visit the SAAF website www.saafund.org.

Girls Decide landing image
30 June 2016

Girls Decide

This programme addresses critical challenges faced by young women around sexual health and sexuality. It has produced a range of advocacy, education and informational materials to support research, awareness-raising, advocacy and service delivery.    Girls Decide is about the sexual and reproductive health and rights of girls and young women. Around the world, girls aged 10 to 19 account for 23% of all disease associated with pregnancy and childbirth. An estimated 2.5 million have unsafe abortions every year. Worldwide, young women account for 60% of the 5.5 million young people living with HIV and/or AIDS. Girls Decide has produced a range of advocacy, education and informational materials to support work to improve sexual health and rights for girls and young women. These include a series of films on sexual and reproductive health decisions faced by 6 young women in 6 different countries. The films won the prestigious International Video and Communications Award (IVCA). When girls and young women have access to critical lifesaving services and information, and when they are able to make meaningful choices about their life path, they are empowered. Their quality of life improves, as does the well-being of their families and the communities in which they live. Their collective ability to achieve internationally agreed development goals is strengthened. Almost all IPPF Member Associations provide services to young people and 1 in every 3 clients is a young person below the age of 25. All young women and girls are rights-holders and are entitled to sexual and reproductive rights. As a matter of principle, the IPPF Secretariat and Member Associations stand by girls by respecting and fulfilling their right to high quality services; they stand up for girls by supporting them in making their own decisions related to sexuality and pregnancy; they stand for sexual and reproductive rights by addressing the challenges faced by young women and girls at local, national and international levels.

Boy holding a sign "Keep abortion safe and legal".
05 May 2016

Tackling abortion stigma

Abortion stigma affects women and girls, abortion providers, reproductive rights advocates and communities. Although abortion is a common experience around the world, it is still largely stigmatised. Negative attitudes and beliefs about abortion may act as barriers to accessing safe services and can make it difficult for people to talk about their experiences of abortion. This can be very isolating, and may force people to continue unwanted pregnancies or to seek unsafe abortion. Since 2011 the David & Lucile Packard Foundation has supported IPPF to implement a range of initiatives to investigate and address abortion stigma. Find out more here, about the effective strategies and learning over the course of this project. It is often young people who are most severely affected by abortion stigma, and who are most at risk of suffering health complications as a result of unsafe abortion. Since 2014 IPPF has delivered a project focused on abortion stigma as it affects young people’s access to services, with targeted work in our Member Associations in Benin, Burkina Faso, India and Pakistan. This builds on previous initiatives and includes: Implementing individual, community and clinic-based interventions in the four countries where abortion stigma research was conducted under the previous grant. Abortion stigma at the community level will be measured at the beginning and end of each project using an adapted version of the Stigmatizing Attitudes, Beliefs and Actions Scale (SABAS) developed by Ipas Developing global guidance and tools to improve abortion messaging to ensure abortion is integrated into peer educator training and better raise awareness of abortion-related services to young people Building capacity of youth advocates to speak out on the right to access abortion services Generating and sharing of evidence and good practices on addressing abortion stigma   In addition to the abortion stigma work supported by the Packard Foundation, the IPPF Western Hemisphere Region (WHR) has been conducting a research study in collaboration with Ibis Reproductive Health to better understand the effects that the provision of abortion-related services have on providers’ and clients’ perceptions and experiences of stigma. This research has been conducted in four countries with different legal contexts and varying degrees of access to services: the Dominican Republic, Uruguay, Colombia, and Argentina. WHR is also working with the University of Michigan to pilot facilitated group workshops to reduce stigma and foster resilience among abortion service providers in Colombia, Argentina, Bolivia, Mexico and Peru. Through this project IPPF has created a range of tools and resources to support understanding of abortion stigma and to increase the capacity of our Member Associations to advocate for safe abortion, and to provide non-stigmatising education and information. How to talk about abortion: A guide for journalists, editors and media outlets encourages accurate reporting of the facts about abortion, and honest portrayals of abortion as part of real people’s lives and relationships. How to educate about abortion: A guide for peer educators, trainers and teachers is a comprehensive guide providing the rationale for teaching about abortion issues, as well a number of practical activities for doing so. The accompanying short animation distills this advice into just two minutes! ​​​​​​ How to talk about abortion: A guide to rights-based messaging is designed to help individuals and organizations think about the language and images they use to communicate about abortion and offers best practice tips. Again, a short animation has been created to share these tips further Our Member Associations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cameroon, Ghana, and Pakistan have shared best practices for improving young people’s access to safe abortion services. These feature strategies based on: creating a ‘buddy system’ for young people accessing services, working with educational establishments, using social media, and youth friendly spaces respectively.   In 2015, young people from IPPF Member Associations in Spain, Nepal, Macedonia, Ghana and Palestine were awarded small grants to support projects focused on tackling abortion stigma. Read more about these youth-led projects.    The ‘Youth Against Abortion Stigma’ website features blogposts from young IPPF volunteers around the world. In 2017, young people from IPPF Member Associations in Guinea, Kenya, Nepal, Puerto Rico, Sierra Leone and Venezuela were awarded small grants to support youth-led projects focused on tackling abortion stigma.  SEE OUR RESULTS

Saaf
21 January 2022

SAAF funding: Grants for organisations working on abortion

The IPPF hosted Safe Abortion Action Fund (SAAF) is accepting funding applications from organizations in low- and middle-income countries working on any aspect of abortion care, research, education, and advocacy. Please note that only organizations on the list of eligible countries are able to apply. Applications can be sent in English, French or Spanish using the online form and funding guidance on our website. Get your application in before 20 February 2022! https://saafund.org/apply-for-funding Hosted by IPPF, SAAF provides small grants to locally-run organizations that promote safe abortion and prevent unsafe abortion through advocacy and awareness-raising, service delivery, and research activities, and has supported such projects for over a decade. SAAF Supports projects run by IPPF Member Associations as well as other organizations not affiliated with IPPF. For more information about the fund visit the SAAF website www.saafund.org.

abortion care
29 September 2021

How Women’s Access to Safe Abortion will Change in the Next Five Years

Numbers don’t lie: Between 2015 and 2019, on average, 73.3 million induced (safe and unsafe) abortions occurred worldwide each year. Every year, between 4.7% – 13.2% of maternal deaths can be attributed to unsafe abortion. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines unsafe abortion as a procedure for terminating an unwanted pregnancy either by persons lacking the necessary skills or in an environment lacking minimal medical standards or both. Unsafe abortions result in the deaths of 47,000 women every year and leaves millions temporarily or permanently disabled[1]. In Africa, nearly half of all abortions happen in the least safe circumstances. Moreover, mortality from unsafe abortion disproportionately affects women in Africa. While the continent accounts for 29% of all unsafe abortions, it sees 62% of unsafe abortion-related deaths (WHO). An estimated 93% of women of reproductive age in Africa live in countries with restrictive abortion laws. This means that the country’s laws only permit abortion in certain cases, often only if there is risk to the woman’s life, her health, the pregnancy is the result of rape, or there is evidence of foetal impairment. The costs of treating medical complications from unsafe abortion constitute a significant financial burden for developing countries’ public health care systems. Further, the more restrictive the legal setting, the higher the proportion of unsafe abortions. Statistics from unsafe abortions give us a glimpse into the suffering women must endure to end an unwanted pregnancy. We must challenge, re-evaluate different countries’ positions on the provision of life-saving safe-abortion care. We must advocate for changes in laws and policies and push-for the uptake of targeted and budgeted approaches that reach women and girls with safe abortion and contraception services wherever they are. IPPF and other key stakeholders are working towards ensuring that in the next five years, more women and girls will access abortion services differently, as the solutions to terminate a pregnancy will be more easily understood and available through self-managed medical abortion. This new approach promises to radically transform how health care is perceived and accessed by firmly placing women and girls at the centre of the abortion process; shifting the power dynamic from a medicalized and provider-led/decided approach to one that is person-centred and guarantees bodily autonomy. Where women can take control of their bodies and decide when and if to have children; whilst being supported by the healthcare system if needed. Also Read: Safe abortion in the context of COVID-19: partnership, dialogue and digital innovation This approach has been endorsed by WHO and is detailed within the newly released self-care guidelines. Several studies  have confirmed that self-managed abortion is safe, effective, and not inferior to those performed in clinical settings. A recent WHO review revealed that 94–96% of self-managed abortions had similar success rates to those conducted in clinic-based settings. In fact, 90% of clients confirmed they would recommend self-managed medical abortion. As local and global actors working for women’s health, rights and bodily autonomy, we must champion and roll out such new models and approaches that uphold, protect and champion women’s health, sexual rights and reproductive justice. Last July, IPPF joined global actors at the Generation Equality Forum to define and announce ambitious investments and policies for women and girls worldwide. Among our bold commitments, was a resolve to “expand and improve the provision of abortion care through 102 Member Associations, including quality medical and surgical abortion, person-centered abortion self-care support, and abortion care beyond 12 weeks of gestation through a simplified outpatient model using task-shifting to mid-level providers, including self-managed medical abortion.” This is a bold pledge that cannot depend on IPPF alone. It is critical if we are to reach the target of making the self-management of abortion a reality by 2026. Among others, IPPF calls upon the global ecosystem; feminist movements and civil-society organisations to continue to counter the multiple barriers i.e., legal, cultural, social and religious, that impede women from accessing safe abortion freely. Also Read: Abortion Quality of Care from the Client Perspective: a Qualitative Study in India and Kenya IPPF also calls upon policy and decision-makers to uphold their sexual reproductive health and rights (SRHR) commitments and repeal laws and policies that prevent safe abortion. We ask donors to invest in commodities and essential supplies, service delivery partners and prioritize research that promotes this approach. We also urge local and national stakeholders and service providers to embrace this new approach by encouraging, providing and supporting the integration of new models of abortion service delivery within existing clinic-based services. Self-care is not a magic bullet, and neither will this radical change happen by chance. It takes all of us to make it happen. This is not just a question of access. It is a fundamental question of freedom, empowerment, and bodily autonomy. Read more about The Global Comprehensive Abortion Care Initiative (GCACI). By Marie-Evelyne Petrus-Barry, Regional Director, International Planned Parenthood Federation, Africa Region (IPPFAR). Marie-Evelyne Petrus-Barry is the Regional Director of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, Africa Region (IPPFAR). The International Planned Parenthood Federation Africa Region (IPPFAR) is one of the leading providers of quality sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services in Africa and a leading sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) advocacy voice in the region.   For more updates on our work, follow IPPF Africa Region on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and You Tube.