Founded in 1973, Ipas is a global nongovernmental organization dedicated to ending preventable deaths and disabilities from unsafe abortion. Through local, national and global partnerships, Ipas works to ensure that women can obtain safe, respectful and comprehensive abortion care, including counseling and contraception to prevent future unintended pregnancies.
Ipas believes that every woman has a right to safe reproductive health choices, including safe abortion care and that no woman should have to risk her life, her health, her fertility, her well-being or the well-being of her family because she lacks reproductive health care. Women everywhere must have the opportunity to determine their futures, care for their families and manage their fertility. Along with caring, committed health professionals and other colleagues worldwide, Ipas tackles this neglected public health problem head on in some of the world’s poorest countries. While many international donors and governments have focused attention and resources elsewhere, we struggle against the fundamental social injustices that result in the deaths of so many women in the prime of their lives.
Ipas Africa Alliance for Women’s Reproductive Health and Rights works in Kenya and Uganda—and with regional East Africa partners—to reduce deaths from unsafe abortion, to expand the availability of safe abortion care, and to improve the legal and policy environment for safe abortion across the continent. Based in Nairobi, Kenya, Ipas Africa Alliance has programs to train safe abortion providers, support health clinics that offer abortion services, and develop youth champions for sexual and reproductive rights. In Uganda, programs also support comprehensive sexuality education that includes safe abortion, and Ipas Africa Alliance has worked with Uganda’s Ministry of Health Reproductive Division and a team of other partners to develop national standards and guidelines for reducing death and injury from unsafe abortion.