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accomplishments

Ibis Reproductive Health was founded in 2002 with a vision of making reproductive health products, services, and technologies more directly accessible to women. By simplifying abortion, contraception, and HIV prevention technologies and designing them to better meet women’s needs, we aim to shift decision-making to women and improve their health and well-being.

In 2007, we celebrated our fifth anniversary and are proud of all that we have accomplished to date. Here are some highlights:

Expanding access to medication abortion
Increasing access to medication abortion will provide women with an additional safe and effective option for early termination of pregnancy and potentially requires less staff and infrastructure resources than surgical abortion. But many health clinics and hospitals in poor communities cannot afford the ultrasound equipment used in developed countries to make sure that a woman is early enough in her pregnancy to be eligible for medication abortion and, following the procedure, to make sure she is no longer pregnant. Ibis research has shown that, in fact, a physician exam can accurately determine gestational age. We have also evaluated a less-sensitive urine pregnancy test that may be able to replace the post-procedure ultrasound. Finally, we have demonstrated how increased use of misoprostol-alone—another effective medication abortion regimen—could reduce deaths from unsafe abortion.

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Simplifying contraception
Contraceptive labels and provision guidelines do not reflect the most up-to-date evidence and often include numerous unnecessary medical requirements, which inhibit women’s and couples’ access to contraception around the world. Ibis critically reviewed the evidence on the ways that contraceptives are provided and highlighted how methods could be simplified—by removing prescription requirements for oral contraceptives (OCs) or providing intrauterine devices (IUDs) to young women, for example.

Ibis has an ambitious research and advocacy agenda to greatly expand access to the full range of contraceptive methods by simplifying the ways they are provided. We convene the Working Group on Moving Oral Contraceptives Over-the-counter (OTC), comprised of US advocates, researchers, and regulatory experts. With colleagues at University of Texas, we are conducting an NIH-funded project collecting data that will evaluate women’s ability to self-screen for oral contraceptives and will compare contraceptive continuation and effectiveness between women who access OCs OTC in Mexico to women who get their pills in a clinic. The results from this study could help us make the case for moving OCs OTC in the US. 

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MIRA diaphragm trial
With UCSF and a team of international researchers, we completed the MIRA trial, which evaluated the effectiveness of the diaphragm and lubricant gel to prevent the transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). The trial enrolled more than 5,000 women in South Africa and Zimbabwe. Though we found that the diaphragm does not provide additional protection from HIV when used with condoms (and therefore cannot be recommended for HIV prevention), the trial collected rich data on female-controlled HIV prevention methods.

More than ever, women need new HIV prevention technologies that they themselves can control. Ibis continues to advocate for research on female-controlled methods and for increased access to the female condom, which is the only proven and available woman-initiated HIV/STI prevention method.


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Middle East and North Africa work
Ibis is one of the few organizations working to improve sexual and reproductive health throughout the Middle East and North Africa. Our work especially addresses the needs of unmarried women, who have traditionally been excluded from family planning and reproductive health services in the region. Ibis developed the first-ever Arabic-language websites dedicated to emergency contraception and medication abortion in addition to a bilingual Arabic-English reader on medication abortion. In April 2007, Ibis Associate Dr. Angel Foster was invited to appear on Al Jazeera English to speak about unmarried women and HIV in the region.

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Emergency contraception for sexual assault survivors
Ibis has conducted extensive research on emergency contraception (EC) provision in hospitals. In our study on EC provision in hospital emergency departments, we found that staff at 42% of non-Catholic hospitals and 55% of Catholic hospitals said they do not dispense EC, even in cases of sexual assault. Our research has been used in advocacy efforts led by Catholics for a Free Choice, Advocates for Youth, and the South Carolina Emergency Contraception Initiative. Data from our EC hospital study was referenced in the text of the Emergency Contraception Act of 2007, a federal bill introduced in fall 2007.

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Ellertson Fellowship Program
Ibis hosts the Charlotte Ellertson Postdoctoral Social Science Fellowship in Abortion and Reproductive Health, which was established in 2003 and provides research support and training to social science researchers working on abortion. Funding and institutional support for abortion research is limited, and the program aims to develop new leaders in the field and mainstream abortion as an area of study across the social science disciplines. The third cohort of fellows will begin their two-year program in fall 2008.

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