Saren Richardson

Ipas’s local partner, Onelife Initiative for Human Development, has helped Nigerian college students take control of their sexual and reproductive health through a program called “Campus Wey Sabi,” a title which loosely translates to “campus that knows.” Through measuring student knowledge, training local health-care vendors, and hosting on-campus sessions with students and health providers, the program achieved significant results in just four months.
Onelife Initiative, based in Southwest Nige...

“At the time, VCAT was focused on the providers,” says Dr. Deeb. “As an OB-GYN myself, I attended, and saw firsthand how this could impact stigma reduction in a powerful way.”
As a participant witnessing the discomfort with English among nurses and providers from rural areas, Dr. Deeb stepped in as a co-facilitator from the very beginning, translating complex concepts into Nepali. She’s been leading VCAT workshops ever since.
She remembers a comment from a public health nurse who oversaw certifi...

In Nigeria, getting a safe abortion is already an uphill battle. But for women living with disabilities, it can be nearly impossible. With support from the Ipas Collaborative Fund, the locally based SAIF Advocacy Foundation is paving the way to ensure that everyone can access the quality abortion care they have a right to.






Abortion is only legal in Nigeria to save a woman’s life, and factors like stigma, cost, and lack of trained health providers make it difficult fo...

“We all know that war is unplanned—we don’t know when we are going to get displaced,” says Dr Celestine, sharing the story of a woman she treated at the mobile clinic. “She was in the garden and then suddenly heard bombs. She ran to her home; no one was there. All her family had left, and she had to run alone to Goma. But when she was running alone, she got raped by four men.”
Once at the Kanyaruchinya camp, the woman reunited with her family. However, she began to suffer symptoms of a vaginal i...

When people can safely get an abortion, it not only improves their own quality of life, but that of their families, communities and even countries. In a recent collaboration with partners at Rutgers University and London School of Economics, Ipas conducted a global review of research on the impact of abortion access at the individual, community, and country levels. Findings show that when abortion access is achieved by making it legal, available and affordable, the trickle-down benefits are vast...

Research shows what abortion stigma is costing us
Across the world, abortion stigma works to shame and discredit those seeking or providing abortion—causing needless suffering every day for millions of people who consider or support this personal health-care decision.
In collaboration with partners at Rutgers University and London School of Economics, Ipas conducted a comprehensive review of research from around the world on the impact of stigma on abortion access. Our findings identified global...

In most places in the world, people who identify as LGBTQ+ face high levels of stigma and discrimination when seeking reproductive health care—and Bolivia is no exception, according to research by Ipas and partners.





Ipas Bolivia supported three recent studies that uncovered serious issues in reproductive health care for Bolivia’s LGBTQ+ community, including discrimination, legal problems and other barriers. Common themes include verbal abuse, service denial, and fear...

Telemedicine for the provision of medication abortion to pregnant people at up to twelve weeks of pregnancy: a systematic literature review and meta-analysis 
Published in Reproductive Health
Conducted by Ipas and ProFamilia Colombia, this systematic literature review evaluated the effectiveness of self-managed medication abortion provided through telemedicine for pregnant people at up to 12 weeks of pregnancy.

Telemedicine for the provision of medication abortion to pregnant people at up to tw...

Access to safe, high-quality abortion care relies on having skilled providers available. In places where abortion is restricted and stigma is strong, vulnerable groups—such as rural, poor, less educated, adolescent, or unmarried women—face an even higher risk of unsafe abortions. However, this study shows that a lack of training and persistent stigma is causing fewer doctors to be prepared to offer abortion care in the future.
An overwhelming majority of surveyed students in this study not only...

Women’s caretaking roles of children and elderly family members also greatly limit their mobility and ability to reach health services or even immediate safety during a crisis. As one focus group participant explained, “When the disasters occur due to climate change, the pregnant women, post-partum women and children cannot move to safe places by themselves.”
Many of those interviewed voiced concern about increased sexually transmitted infections and unintended pregnancies post-disaster, and the...