CHAPEL HILL-An organization based in Chapel Hill recently celebrated its 40th year of promoting a woman’s right to choose.

IPAS of Chapel Hill is designed to help women gain access to safe abortion care. Executive Vice President of Development, Communication and Community Access Anu Kumar says the organization’s goals are crucial to helping development around the world.

“It’s fundamental for women’s advancement, and really the advancement of communities and nations, that women are able to control their fertility,” she says.

To recognize the occasion, IPAS hosted a ceremony with a keynote speech by an abortion provider in Mississippi. Across that state only one abortion clinic exists, and it’s under threat of closure by the local legislature.

IPAS has already held a 40th anniversary event in Nairobi, Kenya. This fall, they’ll host another program in India.

“It’s going to be exciting to see the work that we have done in each of these countries to really advance women’s reproductive health and rights,” she says.

With North Carolina’s state General Assembly—and the national legislature—taking up measures to limit access to abortion, Kumar emphasizes the importance of the work IPAS does.
“Our work at Ipas shows us first-hand what it means to limit access to safe services and what we’re seeing in the United States is a limitation of those services,” she says. “When you reduce access to services, to safe abortion care, you endanger women’s lives.”

The IPAS event was Thursday evening at Chapel Hill’s Rizzo Center.