Ipas | Newsletter Articles

'It was worth the sacrifice': Kenya's Dr. John Nyamu on why he spent a year in prison

Newsletter: Medical Abortion Matters (November 2012)

Until 2010, abortion was illegal in Kenya except to save a woman’s life. For years the climate of fear and secrecy surrounding abortion hurt women, their families, and health-care providers. Unsafe abortion in Kenya still causes an ... More »

Safe abortion services gain a foothold in Zambian communities

Newsletter: Medical Abortion Matters (November 2012)

Agnes Kalumba* sits outside her house watching children play with a soccer ball and occasionally waving to passing neighbors. Agnes is by all means an ordinary community member who is known by almost everyone in the village, including for ... More »

Out of the fire of anger: A women’s center in Tanzania opens a pharmacy to bring misoprostol to rural communities

Newsletter: Medical Abortion Matters (May 2013)

When the staff of the Women’s Promotion Center (WPC) in Tanzania’s rural Kigoma Region realized women were suffering and dying unnecessarily from unsafe abortion—and that misoprostol could provide an option for safe ... More »

Misoprostol for postabortion care in Nigeria: Changing policy and preparing for action

Newsletter: Medical Abortion Matters (May 2013)

Before 2009, providers and women in Nigeria had little to no knowledge of misoprostol’s use in postabortion care (PAC), the drug’s availability was very limited, and there was no federal endorsement or standards and guidelines for the use ... More »

New findings support both outpatient medical abortion up to 10 weeks gestation and home use of mifepristone

Newsletter: Medical Abortion Matters (May 2013)

Medical abortion can offer a woman the choice to end her pregnancy safely outside the clinic and in the comfort and privacy of her own home, or a space of her choosing. However, service delivery norms and practices have traditionally ... More »

Menstrual Regulation with Medication (MRM) Working Group, Bangladesh

Newsletter: Medical Abortion Matters (November 2012)

In Bangladesh, menstrual regulation (MR) refers to a procedure for inducing menstruation to “establish non-pregnancy” for a woman who thinks she might be pregnant. MR in Bangladesh is typically provided by vacuum aspiration. Formed by a ... More »

Can medical abortion be used in the second trimester?

Newsletter: Medical Abortion Matters (May 2013)

Yes, abortion using a combination of mifepristone and misoprostol—or a misoprostol-only regimen if mifepristone is unavailable—is safe and effective in the second trimester. Where both dilatation and evacuation (D&E) and medical ... More »

Harm reduction: A novel approach to addressing unsafe abortion

Newsletter: Medical Abortion Matters (November 2012)

Most people associate the public health model called harm reduction with the innovative clean needle exchange programs started in the 1980s to curb HIV infection among intravenous drug users. Since then, however, harm reduction has become ... More »

What are the most important updates on medical abortion from the World Health Organization?

Newsletter: Medical Abortion Matters (November 2012)

The World Health Organization published its second edition of Safe abortion: Technical and policy guidance for health systems in June 2012, including many important new guidelines for medical abortion provision. Significantly, the ... More »

Ipas @40: Four decades of life-saving service delivery

Newsletter: Service Delivery Matters (March 2013)

Forty years after our founding, Ipas remains committed to providing training and clinical mentoring and other provider, facility and health systems support essential for high-quality abortion service delivery. Much work remains to be ... More »

‘Medical abortion is revolutionary’: Samsara’s Inna Hudaya on abortion access in Indonesia

Newsletter: Medical Abortion Matters (May 2013)

In 2008, Inna Hudaya helped found Samsara, an organization in Indonesia dedicated to promoting sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) education and information, including safe abortion. One of Samsara’s main programs is a ... More »

What you should know about the new WHO safe abortion guidance

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

The second edition of WHO’s Safe abortion: technical and policy guidance for health systems, published on June 19, 2012, provides important evidence-based guidance for abortion care in a human rights and public health framework. It ... More »

Dr. Anibal Faúndes and the FIGO Working Group for the Prevention of Unsafe Abortion

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

When the second edition of the World Health Organization’s Safe abortion: technical and policy guidance for health systems was released earlier this year, Dr. Anibal Faúndes quickly started getting the word out. As chair of ... More »

FEATURED ORGANIZATION: Lesbians and Feminists for the Decriminalization of Abortion (Lesbianas y Feministas por la Descriminalización del Aborto)

Newsletter: Medical Abortion Matters (May 2012)

Founded in Argentina in 2009, Lesbians and Feminists for the Decriminalization of Abortion (Lesbianas y Feministas por la Descriminalización del Aborto) is a collective working to advance women’s rights—with particular focus on ... More »

I truly believe in the saying 'Trust Women' — An interview with Susan Yanow

Newsletter: Medical Abortion Matters (May 2012)

Through decades of experience improving access to women’s health care, Susan Yanow has cultivated a deep and nuanced understanding of how best to help women worldwide have safe abortions. One of her key interests in the last ... More »

Medical abortion and privacy: 5 useful pieces of advice will help concerned women

Newsletter: Medical Abortion Matters (May 2012)

QUESTION: What advice can we give to a woman who is concerned about maintaining her privacy during her medical abortion? ANSWER: Women often want to keep their abortion private from community members, family, friends and/or a ... More »

More women have medical abortions when given the choice, study finds

Newsletter: Medical Abortion Matters (May 2012)

Why do many women receive medical abortion in some settings and few receive it in other settings? The reason is simple: choice. In a recent study of 8,245 women in France, the odds of having a medical abortion versus a vacuum ... More »

In Kenya, use of misoprostol for postabortion care gains momentum

Newsletter: Medical Abortion Matters (May 2012)

Thanks to recent policy changes and the positive results of a pilot study, Kenya is poised to realize the full benefits of misoprostol for postabortion care (PAC). Health-care providers reported positive experiences for themselves and ... More »

Standards and guidelines: Vital for abortion service delivery quality and access

Newsletter: Service Delivery Matters (March 2012)

Standards and guidelines are a critical element of every abortion service delivery program. They translate abortion laws into practical service delivery guidance; without them, women may not get the care they need and are entitled to by ... More »

Two models for national standards and guidelines: Nepal and Vietnam

Newsletter: Service Delivery Matters (March 2012)

Two countries in particular—Vietnam and Nepal—stand out as models of how national standards and guidelines on abortion care can be developed, reviewed and put into practice. In each instance, Ipas worked with the ... More »

Perspectives: An interview with James Trussell, PhD, Office of Population Research at Princeton University

Newsletter: Medical Abortion Matters (November 2011)

Dr. Trussell is a senior fellow at the Guttmacher Institute, a member of the National Medical Committee of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and a member of the board of directors of the NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation and the ... More »

Predicting and managing pain with medical abortion

Newsletter: Medical Abortion Matters (May 2011)

Q: Is there a way to predict how much pain a woman will have with medical abortion? Cramping is expected with medical abortion since uterine contractions are needed to expel the pregnancy, and most women will experience lower ... More »

IUD placement after medical abortion

Newsletter: Medical Abortion Matters (November 2011)

Because we now know that women can ovulate as early as eight days after mifepristone,1 and perhaps even earlier, and because we know that some women resume intercourse soon after medical abortion, if women want long-term reversible ... More »

Focus on FUSA

Newsletter: Service Delivery Matters (August 2010)

In a socially conservative country where the abortion law is highly restrictive, is it possible to deliver the information and services young women need to help them avoid complications or even death from unsafe abortions? A model ... More »

The Ghana mentoring program: a network of support and excellence

Newsletter: Service Delivery Matters (March 2011)

Skilled and motivated clinical providers are the backbone of a successful comprehensive abortion care program. However, providing abortion care can be difficult because of logistical, operational and cultural barriers. In settings where ... More »

Telephone follow-up after medical abortion

Newsletter: Medical Abortion Matters (May 2011)

Traditionally, women are requested to return to the health center for an assessment one to two weeks after medical abortion, but many women do not return. Often times, women are confident that medical abortion worked and are certain they ... More »

A different approach: A discussion with Cristina Villarreal, director of Fundación Oriéntame in Bogota, Colombia

Newsletter: Medical Abortion Matters (May 2011)

Cristina Villarreal’s father dedicated his professional life to reducing maternal mortality in Colombia. In 1976, he started Fundación Oriéntame, a clinic to treat women with incomplete abortions, using modern techniques “in a ... More »

Tunisia

Newsletter: Medical Abortion Matters (May 2011)

In Tunisia, unique conditions, including a national family planning program that includes abortion care, have enabled rapid adoption of medical abortion using modern methods and evidence-based practices. Tunisia’s population of more than ... More »

Is clinician evaluation by history and physical exam adequate to determine gestational age compared with ultrasound?

Newsletter: Medical Abortion Matters (May 2011)

In some clinics, ultrasound is performed routinely prior to medical abortion to determine gestational age. In other settings, such as a family practice office, low-resource settings or facilities that provide a very low volume of ... More »

A champion of care leads the way for safe abortion in Zambia

Newsletter: Service Delivery Matters (August 2010)

Dr. Mutinta Muyuni, a practicing obstetrician/gynecologist in Lusaka, Zambia, provides comprehensive women’s health care, including safe abortion to the full extent of the law. As an ally who advocates publicly for women’s right to safe ... More »

What Matters to you: Asthma and medical abortion

Newsletter: Medical Abortion Matters (November 2010)

Q: There seems to be a lot of confusion about giving mifepristone and misoprostol to women with asthma. Some clinicians and physicians give asthmatic women medical abortion and haven’t had any problems. Other providers say ... More »

Home follow-up saves most women a return visit to the clinic

Newsletter: Medical Abortion Matters (November 2010)

A recent study, “Feasibility of telephone follow-up after medical abortion,” published in Contraception, demonstrated that at least 64 percent of women who have medical abortion don’t need to return to the clinic for follow-up. In this ... More »

Innovations: Women on Web

Newsletter: Medical Abortion Matters (November 2010)

Women on Web (WoW) was created in 2006 by its sister organization, Women on Waves, to help women in countries where there is no access to safe abortion services to get medical abortion pills. The website is in English, Spanish, Portuguese, ... More »

Providing medical abortion without technology in Nepal

Newsletter: Medical Abortion Matters (November 2010)

Before the legalization of abortion in Nepal in 2002, it was estimated that up to half of the maternal mortality was due to unsafe abortion. The maternal mortality rate prior to legalization of abortion was 539 per 100,000 live births. The ... More »