Stories from around the Network

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.

We are deeply saddened by the violence that killed eight people, including six women of Asian descent, in Georgia. We stand with the Asian American community, our partners and all those who fight for justice in condemning it.

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.

It’s been nearly a year since the World Health Organization officially declared COVID-19 a global pandemic—a crisis that has disrupted the lives and educations of millions of school-aged children. Even before the pandemic, an estimated 263 million children were not in school, a number that undoubtedly has grown due to school closures to slow the spread of the virus.

Kizza Blair is a fourth-year medical student in Uganda and a member of Medical Students for Choice. In this Q&A, we ask him about the value of safe abortion care and the impact of the Helms Amendment, a U.S. law that restricts U.S. foreign assistance funding for abortion services and disproportionately affects Black and brown women in low- and middle-income countries.

Statement from Ipas President and CEO Anu Kumar:

What we saw on January 6 at the U.S. Capitol was an act of domestic terrorism, incited by the current president.  This was not an “undermining” of democracy, but a direct attack on it. 

The tireless work of abortion rights advocates paid off on Dec. 30 when Argentina’s senate voted to legalize abortion—an historic shift after the senate rejected a similar bill just two years ago.

In Kenya, the response to curb the COVID-19 pandemic was immediate. In late March, a countrywide quarantine was imposed—airports, schools, churches and mosques were closed, public gatherings were restricted and movement into and around the country was limited.