Ipas (organization)
Founded | 1973 |
---|---|
Type | Nonprofit 501(c)(3) |
Location | |
Area served | Worldwide |
Website | www.ipas.org |
Ipas is a global non-profit organization that works around the world to eliminate deaths and injuries from unsafe abortion and increase women's ability to exercise their sexual and reproductive rights. Ipas’s work is grounded in the belief that women everywhere must have the opportunity to determine their futures, care for their families and manage their fertility.
Scope of work
Ipas works to improve women's access and right to safe abortion care and reproductive health services by:
- Training doctors, nurses, and midwives[1] in clinical and counseling skills for abortion, postabortion care and family planning;
- Improving health-service delivery to make abortion safer and more accessible for women[2] and less costly[3] for the health system;
- Researching the impact of unsafe abortion and documenting best abortion care practices and policies;[4][5]
- Working with advocates and policymakers around the world to support women’s reproductive rights and increase access to safe and legal abortion services;
- Engaging with women and men in their communities to expand their knowledge of reproductive health and reproductive rights;[6]
- Increasing access to reproductive health technologies, including manual vacuum aspiration (MVA) and medical abortion.[7]
Areas of focus
- Abortion care
- Advocacy
- Medical Abortion
- Abortion Technologies
- Youth
- Research
- Training
- Sexual Violence
History
1973: Ipas is founded, following the passage of the Helms Amendment,[8] which prohibits use of U.S. foreign aid to support abortion services overseas.
1973: Ipas begins manufacturing and distributing manual vacuum aspiration (MVA) instruments.[9]
1990: Ipas launches the postabortion family planning initiative.[10]
2003: Ipas creates, defines and implements the concept of "woman-centered comprehensive abortion care".[11]
2009: Ipas University, a self-paced online learning site for reproductive health care providers, is launched.[12]
2009: Womancare Global, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ipas, is launched to market and distribute the MVA instruments, as well as a number of other reproductive-health technologies.[13]
2009: "Not Yet Rain," a documentary about abortion in Ethiopia, is produced by Emmy-award winning filmmaker Lisa Russell and Ipas.[14]
2010: Ipas has offices in 13 countries and serves 40 countries in Africa, Asia and the Americas.[15]
References
- ^ Akiode, A; Fetters, T; Daroda, R; Okeke, B; Oji, E (2010). "An evaluation of a national intervention to improve the postabortion care content of midwifery education in Nigeria". International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics. 110 (2): 186–90. doi:10.1016/j.ijgo.2010.05.003. PMID 20638991.
- ^ Banerjee, Sushanta K; Tank, Jaydeep (2009). Expanding the provider base: Improving access, saving lives. New Delhi: Asia and Oceania Federation of Obstetrics & Gynecology. pp. 93–103.
- ^ Unsafe abortion: The preventable pandemic The Lancet
- ^ Castleman, Laura D.; Blumenthal, Paul D. (2009). Spontaneous and induced abortion: Chapter 6. Philadelphia: American College of Physicians. pp. 137–157.
- ^ Paul, Maureen (2009). Lichtenberg, E. Steve; Borgatta, Lynn; Grimes, David A.; Stubblefield, Phillip G.; Creinin, Mitchell D. (eds.). Management of unintended and abnormal pregnancy: Comprehensive abortion care: NAF textbook. West Sussex, UK: American College of Physicians.
- ^ Rogo, K. O; Muganda-Onyando, R.; Magak, K.; Mukenge, M.; Ombaka, C.; Oguttu, M. A.; Ochieng, J. A.; Orero, S. O. (2006). Testing community level strategies to reduce unwanted pregnancy and unsafe abortion in western Kenya: The community based abortion care project (COBAC). Nairobi, Kenya;Los Angeles CA: Center for the Study of Adolescence (CSA);Pacific Institute for Women's Health (PIWH);Kenya Medicational and Educational Trust.
- ^ Tsu, VD; Coffey, PS (2009). "New and underutilised technologies to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity: What progress have we made since Bellagio 2003?". BJOG: an International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology. 116 (2): 247. doi:10.1111/j.1471-0528.2008.02046.x.
- ^ USAID | USAID's Family Planning Guiding Principles and U.S. Legislative and Policy Requirements
- ^ Medical Students for Choice | The Ipas MVA Plus – An Advancement in Technology
- ^ Guttmacher Institute | Essential Elements of Postabortion Care: Origins, Evolution and Future Directions
- ^ Ipas | What is woman-centered comprehensive abortion care?
- ^ IpasU
- ^ WomanCare Global
- ^ Feministing | Not Yet Rain: A new documentary about abortion access in Ethiopia
- ^ Ipas | Where Ipas Works