Leila Hessini

Leila Hessini

Ipas / Global Fund for Women

Leila Hessini is the Director of Community Access at Ipas, an international NGO that works to advance women’s sexual and reproductive rights and to expand access to safe abortion care. She is also the joint founder and steering committee of the International Network for the Reduction of Abortion Discrimination and Stigma (www.endabortionstigma.org)

Destigmatizing and Decriminalizing Abortion: That’s Our Collective Work

Leila Hessini

On this Global Day of Action for Access to Safe and Legal Abortion, we celebrate the millions who make a decision that is the right one for them, their families, and their communities. We celebrate the providers who are committed to truly providing patient-centered care regardless of age, sexual or gender orientation, marital status, reason for abortion, or ability to pay. And we celebrate policymakers and activists who have worked tirelessly to overturn laws that criminalize and penalize women.

Taking Action to Combat State-Sanctioned Violence Against Women Worldwide

Leila Hessini & Beatriz Galli

May 28 is the International Day of Action for Women’s Health—a day advocates have commemorated since 1987. This year, the focus is on institutional violence.

How Women Took Their Reproductive Rights Into Their Own Hands

Leila Hessini

This women’s history month, it’s time we honor the contributions of those who have been leaders on spreading information about the use of pills to safely terminate a pregnancy.

In Our Own Hands: What U.S. Women Can Learn from Self-Use of Medication Abortion Worldwide

Francine Coeytaux & Leila Hessini

There is much we can learn from our sisters in the Global South who, rather than trying to gain access to services that all too often do not exist or fail to treat them well, are obtaining pills to induce abortion and taking them at home without seeing a health provider.

Confronting Abortion Stigma

Leila Hessini

Abortion stigma is a form of gender discrimination and punishment, and it represents social control of both women who need abortions and providers who provide them.

The Power of Pills: Putting Abortion Back in the Hands of Women Around the World

Alyson Hyman & Leila Hessini

Fortunately for women, pills have changed the landscape of abortion. Abortion with pills, also known as medical abortion (MA), provides a safe, low cost and easy to use method to terminate pregnancies, and one to which access is increasing in several countries.

One Day, One Struggle: Building a Movement for Women’s Reproductive and Sexual Rights

Leila Hessini

Across the globe, men are making key decisions about women’s most basic human rights. Women’s, feminist, queer and LGBT groups, however, have claimed a space that cannot be denied and are standing up for our rights. One poignant example of these efforts culminates today, November 9.

Abortion Stigma is Simply Discrimination: Here Is How We Get Rid of It

Leila Hessini

Worldwide, roughly 43 million women have an abortion each year. Yet these same women face stigma, a form of social control used to dehumanize, devalue, and isolate them. Providers are grappling with effective ways to reduce abortion stigma.

Leila Hessini

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