Ibis Reproductive Health

Did you know Ibis has a monthly newsletter that highlights our cutting-edge SRH research, important organizational updates, and the facts and data you need to support your advocacy and work? Check out the August newsletter below to learn about our creative partnership with Agents Of Ishq, updates from our Africa Region office and Free the Pill, and our new commentary in JAMA Network Open about self-managed abortion and criminalization in the post-Dobbs US. https://conta.cc/3LMrkiw

In India, the majority of abortions do not occur within the formal healthcare system despite a relatively permissive legal framework and free government services for abortion. With pharmacies stocked and staff often willing to dispense abortion medications without prescriptions, people can and do self-manage using abortion medications at home. Few studies have explored why so many people in India choose to self-manage their abortions over other abortion methods and modes of service delivery, their experiences self-managing a medication abortion, and the information and support that exists throughout their journey. To fill this gap in research, Ibis teamed up with Rural Women’s Social Education Centre (RUWSEC), Sanitation and Health Rights in India (SHRI), and the Family Planning Association Of India (FPAI). After conducting the research, the team partnered with Agents Of Ishq to develop arts-based resources to reach people who might be self-managing their abortions or supporting someone through an abortion. Senior Research Coordinator Caitlin McKenna and Agents of Ishq Founder and Creative Director Paromita Vohra co-wrote a blog post about the power and potential of artist-researcher partnerships, the importance of creative research dissemination, and their collaborative development of arts-based resources to combat abortion stigma in India. Read the full blog post here: https://ow.ly/VcEx50SOG2P Learn about our research on self-managed abortion in India here: https://ow.ly/qabw50SOG2R

📢 We are excited to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Reproductive Justice movement! This milestone honors the visionary work of 12 black women who gathered in Chicago 30 years ago to address black women's reproductive health concerns and laid the groundwork for the #ReproductiveJustice movement. They paved the way for progress and equality, and Ibis Reproductive Health is proud to carry their legacy forward. Download the toolkit to uplift their incredible contributions and join the movement. Learn more here: bit.ly/RJVoter2024Toolkit #RJ30Anniversary

“Abortion legislation in the US has, from the outset, been motivated by political and economic ends, rather than health and safety. The first abortion laws were passed in the US in the 1860s to protect the economic interests of physicians. At the time, the profession was almost exclusively comprised of white men who wanted to keep midwives, a racially diverse, female-dominated profession, from encroaching on work that the physicians viewed as potentially lucrative. Similarly, abortion restrictions today do nothing to protect the health of pregnancy-capable people. Instead, they have had a devastating impact on all aspects of pregnancy-related care. By prioritizing politics over science, the US continues down a perilous, but familiar, path that is rooted in its racist history. This path has led to a landscape where gender-affirming care is criminalized, contraception is increasingly difficult to access and abortion is all but impossible in large swaths of the country. Yet, clinicians are unable to provide standard prenatal and safe childbirth care for fear of running afoul of abortion restrictions imposed by the state. For some, the decisions in Idaho v. United States and AHM v. FDA might seem heartening. We agree that there are glimmers of hope, but the reality is that the lives of pregnant people are at stake. These attacks on essential health care will continue at the state level, and will continue to put the lives of pregnant people at risk and threaten the inherent right to bodily autonomy we all deserve. Looking ahead, we must continue to fight to ensure that medical standards and scientific evidence, not politics, drive reproductive health care policies.” - Ibis Vice President for Research Caitlin Gerdts, PhD, MHS and Senior Research Scientist Heidi Moseson for Ms. Magazine. Read the full op-ed here: https://ow.ly/Ye9W50SNea4

Medication abortion (MA) is an extremely safe and effective abortion method and is the most common method in the US. However, despite the key role that abortion support providers can play in delivering person-centered care and meeting the unique support needs of MA clients, no studies have examined the gaps in MA support offerings in the US, and the role that in-person or remote abortion support providers may play in meeting these needs. Between April and October 2018, Ibis researchers sought to address these gaps through in-depth interviews with 16 abortion support providers from a variety of abortion support organizations across the US. Most participants referred to themselves as abortion doulas, full-spectrum doulas, as having received abortion doula training, or as a member of an abortion doula collective. The type of support they provided included informational, emotional, physical, spiritual, and logistical support. Most participants provided care through city-based abortion support provider collectives, all of which were affiliated with a clinic or a group of clinics, while the rest offered care through talklines or worked for a clinic or as an independent abortion support provider. Six participants provided support in-person, five remotely, and five both remotely and in-person. The majority provided support in a volunteer capacity. Participants noted potential feelings of loneliness or isolation among MA clients due to a lack of clinic-based support programs and the need for more abortion support providers. Many noted the benefits of remote support provision, including convenience, client comfort, safety, and anonymity, as well as the challenges, like the inability to provide referrals to local resources, difficulty assessing client wellbeing without touch and body language, and technological issues. One notable benefit of remote support provision was its potential to expand abortion support to MA clients who would not otherwise have easy access to support due to geographic distance, parenting responsibilities, and other barriers. In the context of growing use of telemedicine MA care provision models in the US, it may be particularly crucial to increase remote medication abortion support offerings. Remote provision of MA is likely to become more common and necessary due to increasing restrictions post-Dobbs, and remote support delivery may be a promising method to serve clients in increasingly restrictive settings who might not otherwise have access to support services and who may already be utilizing telemedicine services to obtain MA pills. This model of care could also meet the needs of those self-sourcing pills and self-managing abortion in restricted settings where on-the-ground support services are not offered or not safe to utilize. While these services are medically safe, there are potential legal risks to abortion support providers and seekers in these contexts. Read the full study here: ow.ly/rHlW50SFvS2 #IbisDrivesChange

“A decade ago, menstrual health was shrouded in stigma and silence. Conversations around menstruation were limited, and menstrual health management was not prioritized in policy agendas. While this stigma is slowly lifting, and the silence is being broken by menstruators, allies, and activists across the globe, equity in this space is yet to be reached, and barriers remain. Millions of girls and women in South Africa and around the world continue to face significant obstacles in managing their periods. Lack of access to affordable menstrual products, inadequate sanitation facilities, and deeply entrenched cultural taboos perpetuate menstrual inequity.” Communications Assistant Sesona Buyeye wrote about the history of menstrual health advocacy and the work that remains to achieve menstrual health equity and eradicate period poverty for Global Citizen. Read it here: https://ow.ly/2f4550SFF5Y #AfricaRegionStrategy #MenstrualHygieneDay #PeriodFriendlyWorld #IbisDrivesChange

Check out our President Kelly Blanchard’s reflections on the two-year anniversary of Dobbs.

Our latest Driving Change newsletter celebrates Pride, provides important organizational updates, and highlights our bold new research on direct-to-patient telehealth medication abortion services in Australia and abortion perceptions among traditional healers in Peru. Check it out here: https://conta.cc/4cjoL3k

📣We are hiring!📣 Ibis Reproductive Health is seeking a dynamic, collaborative, bold, and experienced leader to join our Senior Management Team as the Vice President for Africa Programs. We are looking for a new leader for our Africa region work who can continue to expand our partnerships and impact, who has strong and successful relationships with funders, and is excited to grow Ibis’s funder base in the region. This role will provide effective oversight for our regional team and projects—supporting a high-performing and engaged team, and ensuring all team members are able to thrive at Ibis. The new leader will work with the Ibis Senior Management Team to refresh our Africa region and organizational strategies in 2025 and will play a key role in global leadership of the organization. This role can be based in the Ibis office in Johannesburg, South Africa (currently hybrid with 2 days/week in office) or other Africa region location (remote). The starting salary is approximately R1,200,000 per year depending on experience/qualifications plus a generous benefits package. Priority deadline is *this* Sunday, June 30. Apply here: https://lnkd.in/ee-sTQa

BREAKING NEWS: SCOTUS has dismissed the consolidated cases Idaho v. United States and Moyle v. United States, lifting a stay it had previously placed on a federal district court order, which will allow pregnant people in Idaho to receive lifesaving medical care—including abortion care—under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) for now as the lower courts continue to litigate this case. Ibis President Kelly Blanchard released the following statement in response to this decision: “Everyone has the right to access to lifesaving and essential health care treatment, and pregnant people are no exception. While we are heartened that, for now, pregnant people in Idaho will have access to stabilizing and lifesaving health care, the Justices’ decision to return this case to the lower courts instead of affirming that EMTALA requires hospitals to provide lifesaving and stabilizing medical care—including abortion care—to pregnant people means the threat to pregnant peoples’ lives nationwide is far from over. Just two years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, this case is yet another assault on health care, human rights, and bodily autonomy that has nothing to do with scientific evidence or medical best practice, and instead contributes to an ongoing public health crisis and disproportionately harms communities that already experience systematic oppression and face the greatest barriers to care, including Black people, Indigenous peoples, AANHPI and Latine people, LGTBQ+ people, young people, people with disabilities, immigrants, those working to make ends meet, and people living in geographically isolated areas. We call on policymakers to do everything in their power to ensure that everyone—including pregnant people—can access lifesaving medical care no matter who they are or where they live. And at Ibis, we remain committed to identifying innovative ways to expand access to abortion and other reproductive health care so that everyone can exercise their bodily autonomy without barriers and make the decisions about their futures and families that are right for them.”