Ipas: Advancing reproductive rights at home and abroad

11.02.2011 A distinguishing characteristic of Ipas’s location in the Research Triangle region of North Carolina is its high concentration of businesses, nonprofit organizations and academic institutions involved in global health. While contributing substantially to improving the health and well-being of people around the world, global health efforts also have an important impact on the state of North Carolina, accounting for more than 7,000 jobs and generating $1.7 billion for the state’s economy in 2007, for example.

The latest issue of the North Carolina Medical Journalhighlights both the global and local impact of such organizations, many of which are members of the Triangle Global Health Consortium, which facilitates collaboration and partnerships among area professionals and institutions.

The Journal includes two articles about Ipas’s work: The first focuses on how Ipas is applying its longstanding global health experience to address the reproductive health needs of young Latino immigrants in its home state; and the second examines how restrictions on U.S. foreign aid introduced by the late Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC) have impeded efforts to improve the sexual and reproductive health of poor women in developing countries.

Making local and global connections

“The local/global connection: Partnering to address the sexual and reproductive health needs of Latinos in North Carolina,” by Laura Villa-Torres, Florence Simán and Merrill Wolf, discusses collaborative efforts by Ipas and El Pueblo – a statewide advocacy and public policy organization – to improve the availability and accessibility of culturally appropriate reproductive health services for Latino youth.

North Carolina has one of the fastest-growing Latino populations in the nation, and young Latinos face particular challenges in accessing comprehensive reproductive health information and services. Working together and with other local partners, Ipas and El Pueblo designed and implemented a program called “Derechos sin Fronteras” or “Rights without Borders” to increase Latinos’ knowledge of reproductive health issues, foster better communication within families, improve access to services, and increase young Latinos’ capacity to advocate for their own reproductive health and rights.

“Using curricula adapted from Ipas’s successful work with health promoters in North Carolina and young people in Mexico and Central America, we created a network of trained peer educators and activists who are applying their new knowledge and skills in multiple ways,” says Ipas Youth Associate Laura Villa-Torres. “This is a critical step not only in improving reproductive health among this population, but also in increasing their visibility among local, state and national decisionmakers.”

Stifled efforts to save women’s lives

In “North Carolina and global reproductive health: For better and worse,” Patty Skuster and Merrill Wolf explain how a 1973 amendment to the U.S. Foreign Assistance Act introduced by Sen. Jesse Helms continues to hinder efforts to improve the health and lives of women worldwide.

The Helms Amendment prohibits the use of U.S. funds for the performance of abortion as a method of family planning or to motivate or coerce any person to practice abortions. Strict interpretation of the policy has meant that information and counseling on abortion, even where legally permitted, is banned in U.S.-funded facilities. For example, Nepal liberalized its abortion law in 2002, after which the government launched a major effort to make safe abortion services available throughout the country. However, health-care programs supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) may not even mention the availability of safe abortion services to the women they serve, denying these patients critical information about and access to a legal, and often desperately needed, health-care service.

“Through the ban on foreign aid for abortion that carries his name, Senator Helms created obstacles that continue to impede poor and otherwise vulnerable women around the world from obtaining potentially lifesaving reproductive health information and care,” Ipas Senior Policy Advisor Patty Skuster says. “For the United States to exercise the global leadership it should in the area of international reproductive health, the amendment must be repealed.”