Latin American Consortium Against Unsafe Abortion Who we are; current activities and future priorities Lisboa, Portugal, March 2 – 4, 2010

Political scenario Strong influence of Catholic Church Powerful and well funded anti-rights groups Conservative and apprehensive ruling class Where available, public opinion polls show consensus regarding access to abortion in some specific circumstances Strong women´s health and rights movement Public policies No availability of mifepristone and limited availability of misoprostol permitted for obstetric use by national regulatory agencies Over the counter & webpage access to misoprostol with poor counseling (in some countries at a very high cost) Post-abortion care is not included in public policies in all the countries and risk reduction strategies are being tested Abortion in Latin America

Who we are !

2004 / ICMA International Conference “Medical Abortion: An International Forum on Policies, Programmes and Services”, Johannesburg Latin American participants showed interest to coordinate efforts 2005 / The Population Council “Second Meeting on Unwanted Pregnancy and Unsafe Abortion Research”, Mexico DF Decision to launch the network was reaffirmed, membership criteria was agreed upon and first Coordinating Committee was elected 2006 / First CLACAI Meeting, Lima 46 representatives from 13 countries agreed upon the mission, objectives and governance bodies Building CLACAI

Objectives Foster exchange of information to strengthen advocacy, research, and provision of services aimed at improving access to safe abortion Place the unsafe abortion issue in regional and national human rights and public health agendas Disseminate updated information on technologies related to safe abortion, particularly medical abortion CLACAI´s mission Reduce the incidence of unsafe abortion by increasing access to modern and safe technologies while respecting women’s sexual & reproductive rights

Individuals and institutions committed to CLACAI´s mission Researchers, providers, advocates and policy makers engaged in activities to eradicate unsafe abortion (Lawyers) Candidates must be recommended by ongoing member and approved by the Steering Committee At present: 183 members from 11 countries Membership

CLACAI countries : Argentina Bolivia Brasil Chile Colombia Costa Rica Ecuador USA Guatemala Mexico Nicaragua Perú Uruguay

Governance bodies In charge of: defining the working plan In charge of: reviewing strategies & working plan In charge of: organizing the activities, preparing proposals and reporting to SC/AB and to donors Steering Committee (SC) Advisory Board (AB) Executive Secretary 1 person (member of SC) + small team 28 members from founding member list 6 members

Website development Dissemination of documents developed by CLACAI members in the context of conferences or activities; presentations, abstracts of studies, etc Dissemination of updated studies and articles related to medical abortion originating from other sources Development of a version of the web site in Portuguese

Translation to English for dissemination through ICMA Translation of articles or documents produced by CLACAI, as a contribution toward strengthening regional ICMA networks or lists focused on this issue

Support to local initiatives Small grants program for local initiatives Call for proposals among member organizations focused on access to misoprostol among vulnerable populations

Strengthening of a network of services for safe abortion (Ecuador, Fundacion Desafio). Feasibility of the introduction of misoprostol for the treatment of incomplete abortion (CEDES, Argentina) Approval of norms for the provision of legal abortion using misoprostol (Costa Rica, Colectivo Derecho ) Misoprostol’s use in the obstetric emergency care (Peru, Health Sub-region of Piura) Strengthening of a pharmacy network in order to assure the availability of misoprostol (Uruguay, Ruda) Support to local initiatives

Systematic review on medical abortion in LAC, Total of 14 studies were identified that focus on the perceptions of women related to information, knowledge, availability, access, efficacy, practices and methods of use of misoprostol –There are few studies on this topic, and the majority have not been published. –Most of the studies focus on the population of women who receive post-abortion care services. There are no studies of women who did not have access to services. There also are few studies on the experience of women for whom misoprostol was ineffective. –There is a lack of information about women who access legal abortion services and those who receive misoprostol for incomplete abortion.

Additional resources Proposal for a database that would allow CLACAI members to upload and access information about both published and unpublished studies related to abortion and the use of drugs such as misoprostol in Latin America With support from Ipas, we are developing a factsheet on medical abortion and misoprostol in Latin America and the Caribbean

MOU with FLASOG Development of Memo of Understanding with the Committee on Sexual and Reproductive Rights of the Latin American Federation of OB/GYN Societies (FLASOG) in order to –Develop joint sub-regional conferences on reducing impact of unsafe abortion –Joint fundraising

Current activities !

Fundraising Two grants confirmed during this period –Ford Foundation (Period Jan-June 2010) for $75,000 –American Jewish World Service (AJWS) (Period Jan-Dec 2010) for $100,000

Meeting to develop CLACAI’s Strategic Plan corresponding to the period –Done in Feb in Lima, Peru –Included Consulting Committee (larger advisory committee) –Focus on organizational structure of CLACAI, as well the priority areas of work for the coming five years Plan to develop a new proposal within the framework of the new strategic plan CLACAI’s strategic plan

Future activities !

Participation in the ICMA meeting in Lisboa, March 2010 Three Subregional Conferences: Central America, Andean Region and Southern Cone in 2010 Participation in the Sexual and Reproductive Health Congress in Guatemala, May 2010 Meetings

Research In order to support organizations’ activities aimed at introducing mifepristone in the region, plan to perform a stakeholder analysis to better understand the demand for mifepristone and the limitations to registration of the drug in the region Interviews with key decision-makers, including governmental officials, provider leaders, activists and pharmaceutical companies Aim to better understand which pharmaceutical companies might be interested in registering a mifepristone product in the LAC region

Thank you! please visit our website