Policy & Advocacy
Strengthened Policy Environment
Ipas Pakistan works with government and other key partners to strengthen and maintain a sustainable abortion ecosystem at all levels to support women’s and girls’ access to safe abortion and contraception care during all conditions.
In a sustainable abortion ecosystem, governments respect, protect, and fulfil human rights obligations by prioritizing sexual and reproductive health and rights—and are held accountable by a vibrant civil society movement. Ipas Pakistan works closely with government through a multi-dimensional advocacy approach to improve the country’s legal and policy environment around abortion and contraception care.
With partners, we share evidence around the impact of safe abortion and contraception care on the maternal health indicators, and support health systems to adopt best practices and provide technical support to policymakers to design tailored health sector strategies per the needs of each province.
As the result of Ipas and partners’ advocacy, significant progress has been made on the policy front; some of the key achievements are mentioned below:
- Approval of first ever Postabortion Family Planning Policy by the Sindh province
- Pakistan Nursing Council’s authorization to include midwives in postabortion care training programs and service delivery
- PNC’s inclusion of Misoprostol and MVA in midwifery curriculum and trainings
- Approval of Pakistan’s National Standards and Guidelines for high quality abortion and contraception care
- Adoption of National Standards and Guidelines by the Punjab and Sindh departments of health
- Inclusion of Misoprostol for postabortion care in the National Essential Medicine List (NEML)
- Inclusion of Misoprostol and MVA for uterine evacuation/postabortion care in provincial essential drug and equipment lists Punjab and Sindh
- The first-ever procurement by the Punjab government of 10 million Misoprostol tablets and 5,000 manual vacuum aspirator (MVA) kits
- Inclusion of safe abortion and contraception care messages in lady health workers trainings and curriculum
- Piloted first ever LHW-community accompaniment hybrid model on telehealth
- Inclusion of postabortion care and family planning in govt funded health insurance scheme under Sehat Sahulat programme
- Creation of a legal consultative forum to interpret abortion law of Pakistan
- Understanding the intersection between Climate Change and SRHR in Pakistan through evidence generation and tailored policy actions
