The International Consortium for Medical Abortion was formally established in a meeting in London in February 2002. Its mission is to promote access to medical abortion within the framework of support for safe abortion worldwide. Its objectives are to:
| • | advocate for access to safe abortion, including medical abortion; | ||||
| • | advocate for laws, policies and regulations which make the provision of safe abortion possible; | ||||
| • | support women's choice of abortion method; | ||||
| • | serve as a source of information about medical abortion; | ||||
| • | facilitate information sharing and networking among groups working to expand access to safe abortion; | ||||
| • | disseminate and support the development of guidelines, protocols, training curricula, information and introductory strategies for medical abortion; | ||||
| • | support capacity building for advocacy, training, introduction and provision of medical abortion services; | ||||
| • | advocate and support incorporation of medical abortion into health systems; | ||||
| • | support innovative mechanisms to make high quality products for medical abortion widely available and affordable; and | ||||
| • | make recommendations on programmatic and research needs. | ||||
Membership of the Consortium is open to organizations and individuals who agree with its mission and objectives and are active in promoting or supporting access to medical abortion within the context of safe abortion. The Consortium's activities will mainly be carried out through working groups, whose first tasks will be to develop informational materials and an advocacy strategy to promote access to medical abortion worldwide. Later this year it will begin planning a major international meeting which will take up the main debates around medical abortion and its potential to transform the abortion experience for women.
The Steering Committee of the Consortium will initially consist of Ayse Akin (Turkey), Maria José Araujo de Oliveira (Brazil), Marge Berer (UK), Cheng Lian (China), Kim Dickson (South Africa), Peter Fajans (WHO), Nadine Gasman (Mexico), Kristina Gemzell-Danielsson (Sweden), Selma Hajri (Tunisia), Danielle Hassoun (France), Mihai Horga (Romania), Sharad Iyengar (India), Ann Leonard (USA), Wanda Nowicka (Poland), Khin San Tint (South Africa), Beverly Winikoff (USA). The coordinating organization is Reproductive Health Alliance in London.
To become a member and for further information, contact: