Established in 2015, the Community of Practice on Contraception and Abortion has been working as a group to address different knowledge gaps surrounding these topics and working to keep the topic of safe abortion in particular on the global agenda. The CoP has been meeting on an ad hoc level for the past two years but hope to reignite in 2024 with more regular meetings and activities.
This CoP aims to:
The CoP organised it’s first expert meeting in 2015 which aimed to review trends in abortion, barriers to access contraception, reflect on norms, values, perceptions on acceptability of contraceptives that can also be used as abortive method and to reflect on misconceptions among providers about use of abortion and contraception by women. The outcome of the Share-Net thematic meeting was a Policy Brief Addressing Women’s Need for Contraception and Abortion.
In 2017 the CoP meet again in light of the Global Gag Rule. The aim of the meeting was to discuss recent developments and gain insights in the present political and funding climate for contraception and abortion, in the wider context of growing opposition against SRHR and women’s rights. As well as to exchange lessons from operationalization into practice and generate guidance for overcoming barriers to access comprehensive contraception and safe abortion information and services in restrictive environments. You can read the report of the meeting via this link
2018 was a busy year for the Communicty of Practice on Contraception and Abortion. To celebrate the first year of SheDecides, the CoP organised a social media campaign where Share-Net members shared their experiences on how SheDecides affected their work. You can check the SheDecides special edition of the Newsletter by using this link. In addition to that, the CoP organised the Launch of the Guttmacher – Lancet Commission report ‘Accelerate progress – sexual and reproductive health and rights for all’. During the meeting, Ann Starrs, Chair of the Commission, presented the key elements of the report, including the new definition of integrated SRHR and the package of services it entails
In 2019, the first session ever on infertility took place at the 2019 Women Deliver Conference in Vancouver. The session called ‘Women Deliver…Or Not: Breaking the Silence on (In)fertility’ was co-organised with the World Health Organization and the Center for Reproductive Rights.
In the same year, ‘Breaking the Silence on Infertility’ was one of the two main topics during the Share-Net International Co-Creation Conference. The objective was to 1) put infertility higher on the agenda and 2) integrate infertility in different SRHR programmes, processes, policies and practices, in dialogue and exchange with the participants representing CSOs, Share-Net hubs, and global institutions. In this context, an international CoP on the topic of Infertility was created and two small grants resulted into a Narrative Review “Breaking the silence on Infertility” and an Evidence Brief used during the conference. The Annexes of the Narrative Review can be found here.
Furthermore, the ‘Stepping Stones’ document with tips and tricks for integrating (in)fertility in SRHR programmes was published, based on the lessons learnt and results from the Jembatan project.
In 2020, the CoP commissioned a literature review carried out by a young researcher to provide an overview of current contraception and abortion trends on a global and regional scale, with a focus in three developing regions —Latin America and the Caribbean, South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. This work also presents the latest policy developments and financial trends around contraception and abortion services and supplies from 2015-2020 period. Have a look at the full literature review here.
In the run up to International Safe Abortion Day in September 2023, the CoP organised two events on the topic of Crisis Pregnancy Centres (CPCs). One was an online meeting titled “Anti-choice Crisis Pregnancy Centres, Big Tech, and Safe Abortion” which included speakers from Center for Countering Digital Hate, Women on Web, Shake the Dust and Abortion Access Front and the same week, we organised an in-person mapathon where members where shown how to identify and map CPCs in the European context.
If you’re interested in getting in touch with this community, feel free to reach out to Shannon Mathew
CoP members can access their online working space on Mighty networks via this link (Share-Net Netherlands members only).
