Planned Parenthood® Action Center

Worldwide, limited access to health services, lack of political will, legal restrictions, cultural taboos, and harsh gender inequality all conspire to put women at risk of harm resulting from unintended pregnancy, unsafe abortion and childbirth, and sexually transmitted infections.

Here are the facts:

• Two hundred million women who wish to avoid or delay pregnancy do not have access to modern contraception.
• Every minute of every day, a woman dies from a pregnancy-related cause.
• More than 38 million people are living with HIV/AIDS worldwide.
• Worldwide, approximately 19 million unsafe abortions are performed annually, with the majority occurring in developing countries.

Our Priorities
The PPFA International Program works to build movements that promote and protect the reproductive health and rights of vulnerable women and young people. Our work focuses on

• expanding access to reproductive health services, including family planning and safe abortion
• advocating for expanded reproductive rights through country-specific and U.S.-based efforts
• reaching communities that are most often underserved or disadvantaged, including young people and indigenous, tribal, and low-caste groups
• integrating reproductive health into other aspects of development work, such as environmental conservation, microfinance, and education

Read more about our country work here.

Preventing Unsafe Abortion

Unsafe abortion is one of the leading causes of maternal death and illness around the world, yet it is also one of the most preventable. More than 19 million unsafe abortions take place each year, the vast majority in poor countries. PPFA works to prevent unsafe abortion by increasing access to contraceptives and making sure that women have access to safe, affordable abortion care when necessary.

We provide funding to partner organizations to deliver family planning, safe abortion, and post-abortion care services within the limits of the law. We help improve the quality of these services by training health care providers, developing medical protocols, and implementing new medical technologies.

With PPFA's partnership, these organizations are able to serve particularly vulnerable women, such as the young, poor, indigenous, rural, and internally displaced. Many of these organizations work in places that are socially and politically hostile to abortion, and because of social stigma, the staff regularly face threats and attacks. In some cases, PPFA is the only source of support enabling providers to offer safe and legal abortion services.

In Nepal, abortion became widely legal in 2002, yet because many women did not know about the law change, or where they could access safe, affordable services, unsafe abortion persisted. Since then, PPFA has worked with four local partner organizations on a large-scale education campaign to ensure that all women know that abortion can now be attained legally and safely. We also worked with our partners to increase the number of clinics providing safe abortion services and establish reliable referral systems in this very rural nation. In 2009, we had another victory for reproductive rights and abortion access when Nepal’s Supreme Court ordered the Nepali Government to enact a law that would actually guarantee that all women have affordable and safe access to abortion services, as per their rights.

Expanding and Protecting Reproductive Rights

Recognizing the tremendous impact laws and policies have on health, PPFA supports U.S.-based and in-country advocacy to promote women's health around the world. Overseas, our partner organizations use a variety of tactics to raise awareness and support for sound women's health policies among the public and policymakers.

In Trinidad and Tobago, we are supporting a grassroots women's rights group — Advocates for Safe Parenthood: Improving Reproductive Equity (ASPIRE)  — in its efforts to reform this island nation's antiquated abortion laws, which lead to approximately 19,000 unsafe abortions each year. We are making positive headway, which could help pave the way for increased access to abortion services in other countries throughout the region. 

In Kenya, abortion is legally restricted yet widely practiced and often unsafe. PPFA is assisting an alliance of local medical associations, lawyers, activists, and reproductive health organizations that are working to clarify the country’s abortion law, which does allow for safe abortion in certain circumstances, and change policies related to reproductive health and abortion.

Securing reproductive rights worldwide is facilitated and simplified by a supportive political and social climate in the United States. The Obama administration has already exerted a positive effect on reproductive health globally by relaxing some restrictions on U.S. funding.  It has, for example, overturned the global gag rule and reintroduced U.S. funding of UNFPA.  Yet there is much more that can be done. Our partners in developing countries are beginning to ask questions about additional ways that the administration can help them help women, and for this reason, PPFA is committed to continuing to advocate for U.S. policies that promote women's health and safety.

Protecting the Sexual Health of Adolescents and Youth

Throughout the world, young people are particularly vulnerable to unintended pregnancy, unsafe abortion, and sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV/AIDS. They are oftentimes powerless in their societies to exercise their rights to accessing information and services, and there are often cultural taboos around young people and sexuality.

PPFA's approach to young people is unique. We believe that to prevent unintended pregnancy and STIs, young people need both information and services provided in their environment. As a result, our youth program ensures access to both information and services, such as contraceptives (including condoms), pregnancy and STI testing, and counseling. These services are provided directly to youth in places where they congregate and feel most comfortable, oftentimes by their own peers. Most of our projects use a peer education approach in which young people become leaders, educators and service providers.

In Guatemala, our partner organization, Tan Ux'il, a community organization based in the rural northern region of Petén, provides sexuality education and services to adolescents through peer education and street theater performances. They also run the now-famed radio show Sexo Tips, produced and written by young people for young people, who call in with questions about sexual and reproductive health and know they’ll be answered accurately and appropriately by others their age.

In Ethiopia, PPFA is supporting a child rights organization in Nazareth that advocates for the rights of young people who have been exploited, abused, or orphaned. They have now started a peer education program, whereby young people living in their shelter programs are being trained as leaders and educators for their peers. They have also started a series of after-school clubs that give young people a safe space to speak about the sexual and reproductive health issues on their minds and receive medically accurate information.