Empowering Ethiopian Health: Sustainable Models and Domestic Financing

By Sisay Sahlu
June 20, 2026

For more than three decades, MSI Ethiopia has stood at the forefront of advancing reproductive healthcare and family planning across the nation. Dr. Abebe Shibru, country director for MSI Ethiopia Reproductive Choices (formerly Marie Stopes International Ethiopia), spoke with The Reporter’s Sisay Sahlu about his leadership and the organisation’s strategic shift amidst global financial cuts for the health sector.

The Director explained how MSI Ethiopia is transforming from a donor-dependent model into a financially self-sustaining social enterprise, reinvesting domestic revenue into outreach programs that reach Ethiopia’s most underserved communities. By partnering with religious and community leaders, as well as likeminded civic service organizations MSI Ethiopia has successfully challenged cultural misconceptions, expanded public awareness, and contributed to landmark policy reforms that drastically reduced maternal mortality and deaths by advancing choices of reproductive health.

Continued: https://www.thereporterethiopia.com/51277/

20.06.2026

Interviews/Podcasts

Dr. Abebe Shibru

Marie Stopes International Ethiopia

New research shows pharmacies can help fill gaps in abortion care in Ethiopia

June 9, 2026
Guttmacher Institute

Pharmacists in Ethiopia can develop the skills and knowledge to provide medication abortion and pharmacies have the potential to be essential hubs for safe and confidential abortion care, but most pharmacies and other drug sellers lack the stock of medications needed. These are among the key findings of new studies released Tuesday by the Guttmacher Institute, the St. Paul’s Institute for Reproductive Health and Rights (SPIRHR) and Ipas.

Continued: https://www.guttmacher.org/news-release/2026/new-research-shows-pharmacies-can-help-fill-gaps-abortion-care-ethiopia

09.06.2026

St. Paul’s Institute for Reproductive Health and Rights

Ethiopia – A health worker’s journey in providing comprehensive abortion care

How HRP’s training programme supports safer services around the world

5 May 2026
World Health Organization

For nearly ten years, comprehensive abortion care has been available at Jemo Health Centre on the outskirts of Addis Ababa. Tewodros Tibebu, a health care worker at the centre, has worked in comprehensive abortion care for four years.

While comprehensive abortion care has been widely legal in Ethiopia since 2005, access remains challenging. Tewodros says he sees every day how social barriers delay care.

Continued: https://www.who.int/news-room/feature-stories/detail/a-health-worker-s-journey-in-providing-comprehensive-abortion-care

05.05.2026

Commentary

Jemo Health Centre

Tewodros Tibebu

World Health Organization

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