Ethiopia’s Fight Against Anti-Abortion Propaganda

How Ethiopians are resisting U.S.-backed disinformation on abortions.

By Maya Misikir, a reporter and editor based in Ethiopia.
November 13, 2025

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia—It’s the faces of the women and girls receiving treatment for botched abortions that still haunt nurse Hanna, 47 years into her nursing career.

“They had a look in their eyes. It was a plea to be saved from their misery,” she said in Amharic, during an interview last month.

Continued: https://archive.is/RQ7rE
(https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/11/13/ethiopia-abortion-fight-propaganda-america-trump-pro-life/)

Ipas research shows hidden barriers to abortion access for adolescents in Africa

September 19, 2025
Ipas

When a 19-year-old in Ethiopia found herself pregnant, she made a chilling calculation. “I was sure [taking abortion pills] would either end the pregnancy or kill me,” she shared. “I preferred dying than my family hearing and getting angry with me.”

Her experience is captured along with that of many young people like her in powerful research exploring adolescent abortion care across Ethiopia, Malawi, and Zambia. Conducted by Ipas and partners—including the London School of Economics and partners across Africa—this groundbreaking study captures the voices and experiences of 313 adolescents seeking abortion-related care.

Continued: https://www.ipas.org/news/ipas-research-shows-hidden-barriers-to-abortion-access-for-adolescents-in-africa/

19.09.2025

Research

barriers to abortion access

Opinion: The deadly reality of abortion bans is unfolding in the US—like it once did in Ethiopia

US decision makers must lean on evidence to support better maternal outcomes for women—and that means reversing abortion bans, writes Abebe Shibru

BMJ 2025; 389 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.r1318 (Published 24 June 2025)
Abebe Shibru,, country director

I read with dismay and devastation a recent report from the Gender Equity Policy Institute. The report revealed that pregnant women living in US states with abortion bans are 2 times as likely to die than those in states where abortion care is legal and accessible.1 This grim reality was further compounded this month by the Trump administration’s withdrawal of emergency abortion guidance, stripping away critical federal protections that had ensured access to lifesaving care in urgent medical situations.

The US Supreme Court decided in 2022 to overturn the right to abortion and leave its legality up to individual states in the Dobbs v Jackson case. Three years on, this report is connecting the dots between the states that banned abortion and the knock on effect on maternal mortality. It’s yet another piece of global evidence pointing to the profound harm of abortion bans.

Continued: https://www.bmj.com/content/389/bmj.r1318

24.06.2025

Opinion

Abebe Shibru

Gender Equity Policy Institute

maternal mortality

MSI Reproductive Choices Ethiopia

Ethiopia pilot program shows private pharmacies can safely provide abortion with pills

April 10, 2025
Ipas - Published in Frontiers in Global Women’s Health

A pilot program by Ipas, the Ethiopian Ministry of Health, and the Oromia Health Bureau proved that private pharmacies can safely expand access to abortion with pills—making essential care more available and closer to home for women in Ethiopia.

Between December 2021 and March 2023, the program trained and supported 41 private pharmacies to offer abortion with pills and related counseling—to users both with and without prescriptions. To understand how well the model worked, implementers tracked client experiences through pharmacy records and follow-up phone calls 21 days after care.

Continued: https://www.ipas.org/news/ethiopia-pilot-program-shows-private-pharmacies-can-safely-provide-abortion-with-pills/

10.04.2025

Research

abortion pill prescriptions

abortion pills

Ethiopian Ministry of Health

Frontiers in Women's Health

Despite a collapsing health system, Ethiopian providers sustain abortion and contraceptive care with Ipas’s support

March 21, 2025
Ipas

Ethiopia’s health system has been under immense strain due to ongoing armed conflict, climate-induced drought, and economic hardship. Compounding these issues, the recent suspension of over $1 billion in U.S. aid—vital funding for emergency food assistance, healthcare services, and refugee support—has further destabilized an already fragile system. The Ministry of Health has been forced to terminate contracts for more than 5,000 health workers previously funded by USAID and the CDC, leading to the closure of sexual and reproductive health programs and significant staff reductions.

While these setbacks have devastated Ethiopia’s health care system, providers of sexual and reproductive health services know women still need these vital services, no matter the obstacles.

Continued: https://www.ipas.org/news/despite-a-collapsing-health-system-ethiopian-providers-sustain-abortion-and-contraceptive-care-with-ipass-support/

21.03.2025

News

Bishoftu Primary Health Center

Ipas Ethiopia

Kiya Feyisa

Ousmael Mohammed

sexual and reproductive health programs

Empowering Women: Ethiopia’s drive to tackle unintended pregnancies, expand reproductive care

By Abraham Tekle
January 18, 2025

In a significant step toward improving women’s health and rights, Independent Physicians Associations (Ipas) has launched a groundbreaking seven-year project aimed at expanding access to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services for millions of women and girls in underserved communities.

The initiative, announced on January 14, by Ipas Ethiopia, is titled “Improving Access to Reproductive Health Information and Services to the Communities in Five Regions of Ethiopia.” It will focus on reaching over six million people across the Amhara, Central Ethiopia, Oromia, Tigray, and Benishangul Gumuz regions.

Continued: https://www.thereporterethiopia.com/43354/

18.01.2025

News

Demeke Desta

Global Affairs Canada

Independent Physicians Associations

Ethiopia – Fertile Ground

Anti-abortion campaigners have their sights set on Ethiopia – a progressive outlier in a region marred by restrictions. Who’s behind the emboldened ‘pro-life’ movement and what’s at stake for women’s rights amid a myriad of other challenges? Bethany Rielly, Maxine Betteridge-Moes and Maya Misikir report from Addis Ababa.

New International
14 June 2024

‘Pray to end abortion in Ethiopia’ reads the bumper sticker on a taxi parked outside a family planning clinic in the bustling heart of Addis Ababa. Jarring but easily dismissed, it’s an old tactic which anti-abortion groups have used the world over.

According to staff at the clinic, the driver used to rent a room in a building across the road. He recruited a worker from a nearby cafe to recite Bible verses to service users at the clinic. Using toy foetuses as props, the duo would implore people to ‘choose life’. The building has since been demolished as part of a massive city-wide redevelopment project, but this seemingly small act of protest is linked to a much larger and sturdier movement taking hold in Ethiopia and elsewhere in Africa.

Continued: https://newint.org/interactives/2024/fertile-ground/index.html

14.06.2024

Amnesty International

anti-choice cruelty

anti-choice misogyny

anti-choice propaganda

Coalition for Comprehensive Abortion Care

comprehensive sexuality education

conscientious objection

Consortium of Reproductive Health Associations

crisis pregnancy centres

Demeke Desta

Dinah Monahan

Eskedar Melesse

Family Guidance Association of Ethiopia

Family Watch International

female genital mutilation

Global Gag Rule

Heartbeat International

International Planned Parenthood Federation

Ipas

Living Hope Maternity Home

MSI Reproductive Choices

United for Life Ethiopia

World Health Organization

We need to talk about how U.S. policy is sabotaging reproductive rights in Africa

A controversial US policy is jeopardizing family planning services and fueling a maternal health crisis in Ethiopia and Uganda.

By Annabel Rocha
May 20, 2024

The lack of reproductive health services in Uganda and Ethiopia leaves those experiencing unwanted pregnancies with few options, and poorer communities with even fewer. Only 13 to 16% of poor, married women in Uganda use modern contraception, according to Guttmacher, resulting in four in 10 births being unplanned. In Ethiopia, 4.5 million women have an unmet need for modern contraception, with 46% of the estimated 4.6 million pregnancies in the country unintended. To support family planning services, these governments rely on international and U.S. funding, which has devastating consequences for health initiatives when support is withdrawn.

Continued: https://www.reckon.news/family/2024/05/how-us-policy-is-sabotaging-reproductive-rights-in-africa.html

How the Overturning of Roe Is Causing a Ripple Effect in Ethiopia

The Dobbs ruling has emboldened anti-choice groups worldwide—but it has also inspired the global community to reassert the right to choose.

July 11, 2023
by ABEBE SHIBRU

Last month marked one year since Roe v. Wade was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, eliminating the constitutional right to abortion nationwide. The decision dealt a devastating blow to reproductive rights in the U.S.—but the fallout has reverberated far beyond U.S. borders.

In Ethiopia, where I am from, abortion has been legal under a broad range of circumstances for 18 years, empowering women to take control of their futures and saving countless lives. I am so proud of the steps the government in Ethiopia has taken to expand access to abortion over the last two decades. Still, since the overturning of Roe v. Wade in the U.S. last year, these gains are looking increasingly vulnerable.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2023/07/11/ethiopia-abortion-roe-v-wade/

11.07.2023

The Forgotten Tragedy Of Unsafe Abortion

Jun 29, 2023
By Amanda Seller, President MSI United States

In the half a century that Roe v. Wade protected the right to choose in the United States, the risks of unsafe abortion became a distant memory. But in countries that liberalized their abortion laws more recently, the deadly consequences of abortion restrictions are still recent. Their experiences are an important reminder that banning abortion endangers women’s lives.

MSI Reproductive Choices is one of the world’s largest providers of sexual and reproductive healthcare, including safe abortion and care after unsafe abortions. Three providers in Cambodia, Ethiopia, and Nepal shared memories of the impact restrictive laws had on women in their countries.

Continued: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbeseq/2023/06/29/the-forgotten-tragedy-of-unsafe-abortion/?sh=703c3c1a1ec7