We are overjoyed to announce the opening of the first of two locations of the International Planned Parenthood Federation -  Americas and the Caribbean Regional Office (ACRO), in Bogota, Colombia. IPPF Director-General Dr. Alvaro Bermejo, IPPF ACRO's Regional Director Eugenia López Uribe, Deputy Regional Director Dona Da Costa Martinez, and IPPF Director of External Relations Mina Barling were joined by team members from the ACRO and London Offices to reinforce the commitment to the fight for rights and access to sexual and reproductive services in the region. This is an especially exciting time as Colombia stands as the latest champion to step forward to protect the bodily autonomy of everyone with the possibility of gestation, with a recent Constitutional Court victory legalizing access to abortion until 24 weeks. The new IPPF Americas and the Caribbean Regional Office serves Member Associations and Collaborative Partners in over 24 countries across the region, and which are growing in their movement building and service delivery capabilities, including comprehensive sex education, provision of contraceptive, safe abortion, and maternal care and responding to humanitarian crisis. IPPF pride ourselves on being local through our members and global through our network. At the heart of our mission is the provision of – and advocacy in support of – integrated healthcare to anyone who needs it regardless of race, gender, sex, income, and crucially no matter how remote. Volunteerism is central to our healthcare delivery. It underpins the vital work of our members and their teams, whether through community outreach and distribution of contraceptive care or the regional Youth Action Movements championing change.  

The Colombian Constitutional Court has 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. Having delayed several times over the past two years, the court called an extraordinary meeting on Monday 21st February 2022, and took just a few hours to come to its decision - ruling five against four to decriminalize the healthcare procedure. The decision will go into effect immediately. ProFamilia, IPPF's Member Association in Colombia, and Colombia's largest provider of legal abortion care was heavily involved in pushing to extend the rights of those needing to access abortion care. Colombia follows other countries in the region such as Mexico and Argentina, while parliamentarians in Ecuador last week eased regulations to allow access to abortion in cases of rape. 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."    

My Name is Dr Lama Mouakea. I am the Executive Director for the Syrian Family Planning Association. We are now in the fifth year since the start of unrest in Syria, the situation continues to worsen. With half million people being killed and more than ten million having fled their homes, the conflict has now escalated, violently affecting the people in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city. We still are in Aleppo. The situation is difficult. We are struggling to survive. People are coming here because they are not safe. Thousands have left East Aleppo in fear. It is cold. People walk long distances. There is so much crowding and for my staff the hours are very long. There are too many people. Everywhere is crowded and this limits where we can find spaces to provide our services. The security situation in the city means that we are trying to deliver services and see as many people as we can. We know that who we treat today we may not see again. We are providing the highest number of services from mobile clinics, to contraceptive supplies, to essential medicines including vitamins. We have medical teams and volunteers providing sexual and reproductive health services, psychosocial and paediatric through a range of mobile clinics and mobile teams so we can reach people. The risks for women and girls from sexual violence is high. We have seen many cases in our psychosocial support of violence that this kind of displacement exposes them to. We provide tailored support to the survivors of sexual violence, which has increased enormously during the war. There isn't enough services for the people. The demand is high and we need more assistance. With such high numbers and suffering, our internally displaced need urgent help. My staff are also suffering. We cannot keep up and want to survive. We won't leave because our place is here to help our people. I can only hope that the world can hear me. Please consider the Syrian people and what we are going through. We need money to give hope to people and help them survive and save lives. Support IPPF's work in Aleppo   DR LAMA MOUAKEA | Executive Director, the Syrian Family Planning Association Mrs. Lama Mouakea has been the Executive Director of the Syrian Family Planning Association (SFPA) for the last 19 years and has a long history of working with sexual and reproductive health services. Currently she is responsible for supervision of 114 staff and coordination of 600 volunteers. Under her leadership the SFPA has played a major role in responding to the emergency situation in Syria, providing sexual and reproductive health services to people who are internally displaced due to the on-going conflict, with a focus on mother and child care and nutrition, psychosocial support, first aid and training of health personnel in the provision of clinical management for rape survivors and coverage of the minimum initial service package among a lot of other things.

Today, the Danish Family Planning Association (DFPA) together with the Danish All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, and the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs convened a conference with the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) on the challenges of sexual and reproductive health and  rights (SRHR) in humanitarian crises. HRH the Crown Princess of Denmark and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) were also in attendance. HKHK Mary: women are not vulnerable in hum crises because they are weak but because they lack equality #SRHRinCrises pic.twitter.com/EOhV38IpBi — Mette Gjerskov (@MetteGjerskov) February 4, 2016 More than 100 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance. It is estimated that 26 million are women and adolescent girls of reproductive age of which 500 die every day from complications related to  pregnancy and childbirths. For example, the Syrian civil war has resulted in a 39% rise in maternal mortality since 2010 and gender-based violence is affecting at least 7 out of 10 women in some crisis settings. This shows a great need for humanitarian actors to ensure that the human rights of women and girls are protected and able to access sexual and reproductive healthcare.   // IPPF: saving lives in crises Right now more than 250,000 women and girls need help. IPPF provides the emergency response needed, like family planning, which can reduce maternal deaths by 33%. SEXUAL & REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH SERVICES SAVES LIVES. AND IS A HUMAN RIGHT. Posted by IPPF on Thursday, 4 February 2016 The increasing number of humanitarian crises calls for serious rethinking of the current humanitarian response. The status of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) violations in humanitarian crises must be confronted and prevented. Over the past decade, IPPF has reached millions of people during floods, conflicts, earthquakes, cyclones when health care often collapsed, IPPF Member Associations continued to serve the unreachable particularly women which make three quarters of IPPF clients. We have an organizational strategy to address sexual and reproductive needs before, during and after humanitarian crises.  IPPF starts with its Minimum Initial Service Package, which is life-saving, and transition to its Integrated Package of Essential services, which is life-changing. This ensure that a sxual and reproductive health situation is better after the crisis than before. @LcrTrc Crown Princess & @ippf CEO champion #women's #health & #rights in #humanitarian crisis settings pic.twitter.com/4ajLr0rkXg — Matthew Lindley (@t__box) February 4, 2016 Director general, Tewodros Melesse said, "Access to these services,especially in the midst of war or natural disaster, is a human right which does not only saves lives in the short run, but also helps build resilience amongst refugees and displaced people. It’s one of the most important aspects of humanitarian assistance that is often forgotten when disaster and conflicts strike."