Ipas Brazil set to begin new venture

Seventeen years after its creation as a country office of the international women’s reproductive health and rights organization Ipas, Ipas Brazil is moving forward as an independent NGO, a step reflecting its track record of success and growing reputation as a leader in the effort to reduce abortion-related deaths and injuries in South America’s most populous nation.

“We have a new name—Açoes Afirmativas em Direitos e Saude/Ipas Brazil—and a new relationship with Ipas, but our mission remains the same: ensuring that women and girls in Brazil have safe and legal reproductive health choices, including comprehensive abortion care,” says Dr. Leila Adesse, a pediatrician who has led the organization since 2001.
Although Brazilian law only permits abortion in cases of rape and danger to the woman’s life, one million abortions are performed in the country each year. The majority are performed under dangerous or risky conditions. About 230,000 women a year are treated in Brazilian hospitals for complications arising from unsafe abortions.

Since its establishment in 1994, Ipas Brazil has worked with medical providers in all 26 Brazilian states to provide training and increase their capacity to provide comprehensive abortion care, including treatment for complications of unsafe abortion and family planning counseling. An additional focus has been expanding access to legal abortion for survivors of sexual violence. Collaborating with Brazilian women’s organizations and the legal and medical communities, Ipas Brazil has worked to ensure that rape victims get the quick and comprehensive care they need.

Under the leadership of Dr. Adesse, Ipas Brazil completed a landmark study in 2007—carried out in partnership with the Ministry of Health and the State University of Rio de Janeiro—that serves as a key reference on abortion in Brazil. And over the past decade, Ipas Brazil has employed inventive strategies and funding mechanisms to carry out its mission. This has included forging innovative partnerships with youth groups, trade unions, and other organizations as a way of bringing new voices into the national discussion around reproductive rights.

Ipas Brazil also is a founding member of the Abortion Studies Group (GEA) founded in 2007, which brings the technical and scientific perspective on the physical and mental health risks to the issue of termination of pregnancy for anencephaly. GEA is also working with the legal community to create a climate that will lead to favorable decisions on the issue by the Brazilian Supreme Court.

“The pioneering efforts of Ipas Brazil have helped to save the lives of thousands of women and girls in Brazil and have advanced the cause of reproductive rights in South America. We look forward to partnering with Açoes Afirmativas em Direitos e Saude/Ipas Brazil on strategic initiatives that will have a broad impact beyond Brazil’s borders,” says Elizabeth S. Maguire, president and CEO of Ipas.

The continuing push for women’s reproductive and sexual rights comes at a time when anti-choice initiatives are intensifying in Brazil. As recently as 2008, women have been subjected to prosecution for seeking abortions. In the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso de Sul, police raided a clinic suspected of providing abortions and seized the medical records of nearly 10,000 women. Hundreds of those women eventually were prosecuted and convicted, with some subjected to serving community service at a local orphanage. Against the backdrop of this environment, Ipas Brazil created a public awareness campaign called “Think About It” to spur further public debate about the consequences of criminalized abortion.

In 2009, international attention focused on Brazil in the landmark case of a nine-year-old girl who was raped and impregnated with twins by her stepfather. The girl and her mother had to travel far from home to access abortion services, and had trouble finding a willing provider, even though the pregnancy clearly threatened the young girl’s life. Ipas and other partners played a pivotal role in assuring the young girl received a safe and legal abortion. As a result of the controversy, however, the Catholic Church excommunicated the mother and members of the medical team (but not the stepfather, saying that abortion is “a graver act” than rape). Ipas Brazil spoke out in the media on behalf of the girl, her mother and the doctors, and said the case highlighted the urgent need to improve treatment and services for women and girls victimized by sexual violence.

Despite this challenging environment, Dr. Adesse says Açoes Afirmativas em Direitos e Saude/Ipas Brazil is committed more than ever to making Brazil a nation where women and girls can legally and safely exercise their human, sexual, and reproductive rights. One encouraging sign, she says, is that the Brazilian government is assuming more responsibility for women’s health and reproductive rights and views Açoes Afirmativas em Direitos e Saude/Ipas Brazil an important partner and provider of technical assistance.

Source: http://www.ipas.org