Meet the new Director of the Ipas Collaborative Fund

A Q&A with Dr. Anita Nyanjong

Aug 11, 2026
Ipas

The Ipas Collaborative Fund is a central part of Ipas’s approach to advancing reproductive justice and supporting locally led change. As we work to grow the Fund and its impact, our own Dr. Anita Nyanjong, PhD has been appointed as the first-ever director.

Dr. Nyanjong is a human rights lawyer, global development and feminist leader with more than 17 years of experience spanning reproductive justice, gender equality, philanthropy and grantmaking, strategic partnerships, resource mobilization and locally led development across Africa and globally. Most recently, she worked at Ipas on strategic business development and partnerships and the global CTS Nexus (Child Marriage, Teen Pregnancy and School Dropout) initiative.

Continued: https://www.ipas.org/news/ipas-collaborative-fund-director/

11.08.2026

Interviews/Podcasts

Dr. Anita Nyanjong

Ipas Collaborative Fund

India – TN Speaker’s anti-abortion rhetoric is more than a personal opinion

Anti-abortion sentiments have so far not played a major role in Tamil Nadu’s politics. Some argue that Speaker JCD Prabhakar’s stance is his own and cannot be interpreted as the state government’s. But Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay has said nothing yet.

Bharathy Singaravel
10th Aug, 2026

Abortion rights in India are hard-won. In 2021, the Supreme Court observed in a landmark judgement that reproductive autonomy is a fundamental right under Article 21 of the Constitution. That means a woman can choose whether or not to exercise her right to abortion.

Gods of any religion and their earth-bound spokespersons have no say in women’s bodily autonomy.

Yet accessing safe abortion, without judgement, remains a Herculean battle. Pro-life (anti-abortionist) noise continues to drown out the simple facts of choice and consent.

Continued: https://www.thenewsminute.com/amp/story/tamil-nadu/tn-speakers-anti-abortion-rhetoric-is-more-than-a-personal-opinion

Funding cuts leave Liberian girls without contraception

Donor funding gaps are limiting contraceptive access for Liberian women and girls, raising fears of unsafe abortions

By: Tina S. Mehnpaine
Aug 10, 2026

Sixteen-year-old Beatrice had travelled three hours to the Rural Women and Girls’ Rights Foundation (RWGRF) in Liberia for her free Depo-Provera injection. But when she arrived, she was told the contraceptive was out of stock.

She was referred to the nearby Palala clinic, but it had run out too. “I am confused,” said Beatrice, an 11th-grade student who dreams of becoming a medical doctor.

Beatrice began having the three-monthly contraceptive injection after giving birth to her first son at 15, hoping to avoid another unintended pregnancy and stay in school. Now, without access to the contraceptive, she fears she may have to buy it from private pharmacies, where the cost is out of reach for many girls in her community.

Continued: https://www.scidev.net/global/features/funding-cuts-leave-liberian-girls-without-contraception/

Kenya – Shelves Go Dry, Services Collapse, Anti-rights Forces Surge And Deepen The Crises

Monday, 10 August 2026

Two health and gender rights leaders delivered a stark assessment of what happens when major external funding disappears overnight and organised opposition fills the vacuum. The sudden withdrawal of US government's funding support has not merely reduced services - it has fractured health systems, emptied pharmacy shelves, driven up unplanned pregnancies and unsafe abortions, and enabled anti-rights groups.

"Shelves go dry": The immediate collapse of care
Nelly Munyasia, Executive Director of the Reproductive Health Network Kenya (RHNK), did not soften her language. “We saw shelves go dry,” she said. When the US Agency for International Development (USAID) stop-work order took effect in January 2025, a system that had long operated in silos simply stopped functioning. HIV treatment, lifesaving antiretroviral refills, routine check-ups, counselling and testing outreaches, and community-based services for women, girls and key populations came to a standstill.

Continued: https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO2608/S00053/shelves-go-dry-services-collapse-anti-rights-forces-surge-and-deepen-the-crises.htm

Why Are Young Ghanaian Women Still Dying from Unsafe Abortions?

by Felix Seth Kluvia, MD
10 Aug 2026

She was very young. Barely five weeks pregnant.

Very much afraid of what the immediate future held, she unfortunately decided not to seek medical help. Instead, she attempted to terminate her pregnancy at home by ingesting dozens of paracetamol tablets. She was eventually brought to the hospital critically ill. Sent to the ICU even. Despite every effort by the healthcare team, she developed severe complications and sadly lost her life.

Continued: https://www.modernghana.com/news/1517713/why-are-young-ghanaian-women-still-dying-from-unsa.amp

10.08.2026

Commentary

abortion stigma

Comprehensive Abortion Care guidelines

Ghana Criminal Offences Act

UK – Morning‑after pill now free at your local pharmacy – what you need to know

August 10, 2026
Dipa Kamdar, Associate Professor in Pharmacy Practice, Kingston University

Almost 305,000 doses of the morning-after pill were provided free of charge in England’s high street pharmacies in the first five months of the new contraception service, according to new NHS data (October 2025 to March 2026). This figure marks one of the biggest changes in access to emergency contraception in decades, putting a free morning-after pill within easier reach of millions of women.

The change is straightforward: women can now walk into most high street pharmacies and get the morning-after pill free of charge after a short, private consultation with a pharmacist or trained pharmacy technician. It removes the need to book a GP appointment, visit a sexual health clinic or wait for an appointment.

Continued; https://theconversation.com/morning-after-pill-now-free-at-your-local-pharmacy-what-you-need-to-know-288668

10.08.2026

EllaOne

emergency contraception

Levonelle

levonorgestrel

morning after pill

NHS Pharmacy Contraception Service

over the counter emergency contraception

South Koriea – “Although the abortion ban was struck down seven years ago, the state kept casting women as criminals…

May this acquittal become a starting point to resolve the legislative vacuum”

Aug 4, 2026
By Kim Jeong-hwa

On the 23rd of last month, when the mother, Ms. Kwon, was acquitted of murder in the appeal of the “36-week pregnancy termination” case, her attorney, Kim Myeong-seon, said she felt relief rather than joy. This was because, had a guilty verdict come down, “pregnancy termination would have retreated further into the shadows, and medical staff would also have been discouraged.” Attorney Kim said, “I hope this acquittal will serve as the minimum starting point to continue social discussion.”

In an interview on the 3rd, Attorney Kim and Na Young, head of the Center for Sexual Rights and Reproductive Justice SHARE (SHARE), spoke with one voice: “This case is by no means a matter of the mother alone.” They said Ms. Kwon’s case is symbolic, revealing a legislative vacuum now in its seventh year since the Constitutional Court’s 2019 decision of nonconformity regarding the abortion ban, and added, “The state must not brand women as criminals for having undergone pregnancy termination.”

Continued: https://www.khan.co.kr/en/article/202608042310017

04.08.2026

News

Association of Physicians for Humanitarian Practice

Center for Sexual Rights and Reproductive Justice

Kim Myeong-seon

Ministry of Health and Welfare

Netherlands – Doctors want more hospitals to offer late-term abortions

August 3, 2026

The Dutch association of gynaecologists, the NVOG, and the healthcare inspectorate IGJ want more hospitals to carry out late-term abortions – between 22 and 24 weeks – saying access to the care is not currently assured for all women.

Abortion is legal in the Netherlands up to 24 weeks. Terminations up to 22 weeks usually take place in abortion clinics, while those between 22 and 24 weeks are carried out in hospitals, of which only a small number currently do so.

Sanne Gordijn, head of obstetrics at the UMCG in Groningen, one of the few hospitals already providing the care, said some women were travelling to Spain, Britain or parts of the United States because they could not get a termination here.

Continued: https://www.dutchnews.nl/2026/08/doctors-want-more-hospitals-to-offer-late-term-abortions/

03.08.2026

News

Dutch Association of Gynaecologists

Australia – Medication abortion access still limited by location, study finds

3 August 2026

Many Australian women are struggling to access early medication abortion because of where they live, despite more GP’s offering the option.

A study led by Flinders University and published in the journal BMJ Sexual & Reproductive Health, shows inequities in access to medication abortion in Australia compared to similar procedures overseas.

Medication abortion, otherwise known as medical abortion, is a non-surgical and less invasive option for ending pregnancy in its early stages, within the first nine weeks.

Continued: https://insightplus.mja.com.au/2026/30/medication-abortion-access-still-limited-by-location-study-finds

03.08.2026

Calling for the urgent protection of women’s sexual and reproductive health amid the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela

31 July 2026
FIGO - Dr Aparna Sridhar, Diya Shah Patel, Prof Helena Paro and Dr Margit Endle

In June 2026, two consecutive earthquakes killed at least 4,700 people and injured more than 16,000 individuals in Venezuela, exacerbating a pre-existing humanitarian crisis1. Close to 59,000 buildings are estimated to have been destroyed, and Venezuela’s already fragile infrastructure was further damaged, leaving many people displaced.2 Women’s sexual and reproductive health is expected to be further affected in the coming months, and efforts must be directed towards ensuring access to essential, life-saving health services.

After more than a decade of underfunding, health worker emigration and deteriorating public infrastructure, the current humanitarian crisis in Venezuela has struck an already fragile reproductive health system. The country’s maternal mortality ratio was estimated at 125 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2017, up from 52.8 in 1997, evidencing limited access to safe abortion services – abortion is only legally permitted when a woman’s life is at risk – and the erosion of decades of progress in maternal health. UNICEF’s 2026 humanitarian appeal for Venezuela was only 35 percent funded before the earthquakes struck, and capacity on the ground has been weakened by global funding cuts to the sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) sector.

Continued: https://www.figo.org/blog/calling-urgent-protection-womens-sexual-and-reproductive-health-amid-humanitarian-crisis

31.07.2026