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IPPF remains steadfast in its commitment to supporting its Member Association, the Syrian Family Planning Association (SFPA), in providing essential SRHR services for all. Within the uncertainty and instability, we continue to work together with SFPA to empower communities, protect the rights of women and adolescents, and address the urgent needs of marginalized populations, particularly in the face of increased vulnerability. Our collective mission stands firm: we are committed to ensuring that dignity, health, and choice are accessible to all, regardless of political or social challenges. Even in these uncertain times, we believe that SRHR services must continue - because the need for family planning, maternal healthcare, and gender-based violence (GBV) support does not diminish, even in the midst of conflict. Syria is enduring a difficult period of transition, but sexual and reproductive health cannot be sidelined. The health and well-being of Syria’s most vulnerable populations, especially women and youth, remain a top priority. The work of SFPA is more essential than ever, as it continues to provide vital services such as family planning, postnatal care, and GBV screening. At Al-Hasakah, SFPA is on the frontlines, directly supporting over 5,000 people, the majority of whom are women in urgent need of reproductive healthcare services. These women face an increased risk of complications due to the lack of access to safe and comprehensive health services, but SFPA is committed to meeting their needs. From providing postnatal care to offering family planning options and GBV screenings, SFPA is ensuring that women in these vulnerable circumstances are not forgotten. SFPA’s clinics, such as the one in southern Daraa and the besieged Al-Waer in Homs, have become lifelines, serving as a beacon of hope for those in need. They provide up to 70 beneficiaries a day with crucial services, including health counselling and early marriage awareness. SFPA has faced significant challenges, including the seizing of vehicles and temporary clinic closures in the suburbs of Homs. Yet SFPA's perseverance in delivering SRHR services remains an essential lifeline for the people of Syria. We will continue to stand alongside SFPA in their tireless efforts to safeguard sexual and reproductive health rights, ensuring that every woman, adolescent, and marginalized person has access to the care they deserve. Together, we stand for dignity, health, and choice, even in the face of uncertainty. The challenges are great, but the importance of maintaining SRHR services is immeasurable. Through unwavering dedication, we can support those in need and contribute to a future where everyone has access to the care and rights they deserve.   Contact: +44 7918 845944 Image credit: SFPA/Wasim Kashlan

Profamilia – an IPPF Member Association and the leading sexual and reproductive rights organization in Colombia – is celebrating the first anniversary of the decriminalization of abortion across the country. The move - Ruling C-055 - which allows abortion up to 24 weeks of gestation under any circumstance is saving lives across Colombia, and means those who have an abortion no longer face prosecution or criminalization. A historic step for the rights of women and pregnant people both in the country and across Latin America. Over the last year, Profamilia via its nationwide network of more than 50 clinics has helped guarantee sexual and reproductive health and rights, focusing on providing safe abortion care services in person as well as the provision of telemedicine for rural women.   For a country which sees 132,000 cases annually of complications from unsafe abortions and 70 women lose their lives each year – the shift in focus to abortion as a public health issue means healthcare providers can now focus on providing life-saving care and ending unsafe abortion. Alongside the ruling, the Ministry of Health, has also regulated abortion services throughout Colombia via Resolution 051, reiterating that abortion is an essential and urgent health service, which women, including migrant women, and pregnant people (transgender men, trans masculinities, non-binary people, among others) must be able to access without restriction and for free. Further rulings also embeds the provision of sexual and reproductive health information into Colombian health services. Marta Royo, the Executive Director of ProFamilia, said: "Profamilia's commitment will always be to provide comprehensive, humanized and safe services that allow free and informed decision making, and we reiterate this today” "After one year it is possible to see the progress the country has made in terms of reproductive autonomy and rights for women and pregnant people. However, we must move from text to action, and ensure that decriminalization means healthcare. Profamilia's commitment will always be to provide comprehensive, humanized and safe services that allow free and informed decision making." Eugenia López Uribe, Regional Director of IPPF for the Americas and The Caribbean.

On Monday 6th February, catastrophic earthquakes hit Türkiye and Syria. Within hours, our local member association, the Syrian Family Planning Association (SFPA), was among the first responders assisting and evacuating people to safe shelter and accommodation in Syria. Dr. Lama Mouakea, Executive Director, Syrian Family Planning Association said: “In the aftermath of Monday’s earthquake, at least two hospitals have collapsed, three of our clinics have been damaged, and many health services have been disrupted. This will have an immediate, and dire, impact on women and girls. The catastrophic earthquake combined with the harsh winter makes our response even more critical. We have already sent mobile clinics to the areas affected to provide immediate healthcare.” Dr. Mouakea added: “Women and girls who are being moved into shelters in several areas, such as Aleppo and Idlib, may be subjected to violence or sexual abuse, so the medical and psycho-social service needs are great. We know of one devastating case of a mother giving birth to a baby while buried beneath rubble, who later sadly passed away. So getting pregnant women to safe spaces to deliver their babies is now essential. Our staff visit these areas continuously every week, so are already familiar with the communities and areas that are hardest hit. SFPA has been here before the earthquake providing humanitarian aid and will continue to serve these communities as they recover from this latest disaster.”  Whilst also responding to other immediate needs, SFPA is ensuring sexual and reproductive healthcare is on the agenda as a critical component of the response, especially for women, girls and marginalized communities.    Three in five preventable maternal deaths occur during natural disasters, and one in five women is likely to be pregnant during a crisis. Without access to reproductive healthcare, women and girls will suffer severe consequences, including miscarriage, premature labour, complications from unassisted deliveries and increased exposure to sexual and domestic violence, sexually transmitted infections, unintended pregnancy, unsafe abortion and even death.   Julie Taft, Humanitarian Director, International Planned Parenthood Federation said:   “IPPF is deeply saddened to hear of the news of the devastating earthquake in Türkiye and Syria. Our deepest condolences go out to the families who lost loved ones and whose homes were destroyed. Our member association in Syria has already started responding with mobile health clinics, and we stand ready to support the ongoing response efforts of our local partners in their delivery of vital, and lifesaving, sexual and reproductive healthcare to women, girls, and marginalized populations.”  Twelve years of war and sanctions have left Syria’s infrastructure, including healthcare systems, battered. A crippling economic crisis has also driven humanitarian needs to record levels. SFPA has been responding throughout these interlinked crises ensuring continued sexual and reproductive healthcare services through their mobile and static clinics. Dr Alvaro Bermejo, Director-General of IPPF said: “It is amongst one of the most devastating natural disasters we have seen in recent times.  The focus of all actors must be squarely on the needs of the people, particularly women and girls and those who are more vulnerable.  It is not time to play geopolitics when women are giving birth amidst the devastation.  It is time to focus on getting aid and support to where it is needed, now.  It is not only the rubble that must be removed, but also any obstacle put in place by those in positions of power, locally, nationally or internationally.”

Today, the Colombian Constitutional Court decriminalized abortion up to 24 weeks in another victory for the Green Wave sweeping through Latin America. The historic decision follows years of campaigning by women's right's activists across Colombia and came off the back of two lawsuits that asked the court to declare article 122 of the penal code, that "the woman who causes her abortion or allows another to cause it, will incur a prison sentence from sixteen (16) to fifty-four (54) months" as unconstitutional. The court called an extraordinary meeting today, Monday 21st February, and took just a few hours to come to its decision which will go into effect immediately. ProFamilia, the International Planned Federation's Member Association in Colombia, and Colombia's largest provider of legal abortion care were heavily involved in pushing to extend the rights of those needing to access abortion care. Marta Royo, Executive Director for Profamilia, IPPF's Member Association in Colombia, said: "Today is a ground-breaking moment for the people of Colombia and a long-overdue guarantee of reproductive rights and dignity for all those who need abortion care, especially poor and rural women who bear the brunt of restrictive abortion policies. "The decriminalization of abortion up to 24 weeks in Colombia and the Green Wave movement across Latin America is centred not just on public health, but also the full lives, citizenship and human rights of girls, adolescents, and women – who, for multiple reasons, including inequity, access to education, gender-based violence and barriers to healthcare – continue to face unintended pregnancies. "The freedom for women to finally make their own choices about their pregnancies and their bodies is fundamental to disrupting the cycle of poverty that so many in Colombia face. This monumental decision is also a win for the dedicated health care providers, who will finally be recognized as people who simply care about the needs of others."  While Colombian women have supposedly been able to access abortion care since 2006 under three circumstances: if their life or health is at risk, in cases of fatal foetal abnormalities, or if the pregnancy is the by-product of rape or incest, in reality,  the criminalization of abortion persisted. The Guttmacher Institute found that less than one per cent of the estimated 400,000 abortions carried out each year in Colombia are performed legally, with women, especially poor, rural, vulnerable and marginalized women, facing significant barriers to accessing safe and timely abortion care. Many Colombian women are instead forced to carry their pregnancies to term or else seek other methods to end them. Figures collected by ProFamilia showed that during 2020, there were at least 26,223 unsafe abortions across Colombia, a startling amount for which consequences range from infection to life-changing injuries to death. As per the previous abortion law, other women have been imprisoned for up to four and a half years for having an abortion, even in cases where abortion should have been legal. In a shocking example of discrimination, data collected showed that poor rural women were more likely to be charged, with a third of those who faced charges also survivors of sexual violence. Eugenia Lopez Uribe, IPPF's Regional Director for Americas and the Caribbean Region, said: "Today Colombia took another step in the right direction for gender equality and full human rights for all, and we are incredibly proud of IPPF's Member Association, ProFamilia, for their tireless work alongside thousands of activists across Colombia and Latin America "This 24-week decriminalization is historic in the region and especially remarkable when we consider the current fragility of abortion rights globally and the anti-choice movements which continue to plague nations across the world, including in countries close to home like the United States of America. "While today we are celebrating this historic decision, the Green Wave is strong and growing, and the fight for reproductive rights and justice will not end until every person can access high-quality sexual and reproductive healthcare when and where they need it." For media enquiries in English, please contact Karmen Ivey on [email protected] or [email protected]  For media enquiries in Spanish or during UK night-time hours, please contact Pamela Martin Garcia on [email protected]