EngenderHealth Newsletter | September 2026: What Reproductive Choice Looks Like in Practice
September is World Sexual and Reproductive Health Month and includes two observances EngenderHealth proudly celebrates each year: World Contraception Day (September 26) and International Safe Abortion Day (September 28).
This month, we invite you to explore what reproductive choice looks like in practice: accurate information, a range of contraceptive options, abortion care without stigma or unnecessary barriers, and health systems that can respond when people need them.
Meeting opposition with action
Antichoice movements are becoming more coordinated, well-funded, and influential around the world.
Drawing on experience from Benin, Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, and Tanzania, a new EngenderHealth learning brief shares six practical strategies for confronting misinformation, addressing provider bias, strengthening coalitions, supporting youth leadership, and protecting abortion access.
What happens when personal beliefs stand between someone and the healthcare they need?
Early in her career at a teaching hospital, EngenderHealth Ethiopia’s Nardos Bogale saw firsthand the consequences of abortion stigma.
A 14-year-old who had been shamed and denied abortion care returned a week later with serious complications after undergoing an unsafe abortion in her community.
In a new Q&A, Nardos reflects on abortion stigma, what the numbers alone can miss, and how changing attitudes can improve access to care.
Bringing care back to communities in Ethiopia
Essential reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health services are returning to pastoralist communities in Ethiopia’s Afar and Somali regions.
After USAID funding cuts disrupted access to care in 2025, new support from the Project Resource Optimization Initiative is allowing EngenderHealth Ethiopia to restore services through public health facilities and mobile teams.
In New York for the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), or interested in what is shaping the future of contraceptive choice and access? Here are two ways to join the conversation with EngenderHealth this September, in person and online.
EngenderHealth at UNGA
EngenderHealth President and CEO Traci L. Baird will be in New York City next week for meetings and events around UNGA and Climate Week.
If you will be in town, join Traci on September 24 for Bodily Autonomy Is Climate Resilience: Connecting SRHR With the Futures We Are Building. Traci will co-moderate a conversation exploring how reproductive rights, climate resilience, and the future of global health and development are deeply connected.
Also in New York for UNGA? We would love to connect. Meet us at UNGA or share your plans.
What is next for contraceptive choice?
Join EngenderHealth and partners online in recognition of World Contraception Day for a conversation on new contraceptive options, promising ways to expand access, and what still stands in the way of people getting the methods that work best for them.
EngenderHealth Kenya’s Grace Miheso will share lessons from Kenya on expanding method choice and building services that can last.
📅 Tuesday, September 29
🕚 8:00–9:15 a.m. ET / 2:00–3:15 p.m. CET
📍 Zoom
Thank you for being part of the EngenderHealth community and for standing with people everywhere who deserve the information, care, and choices they need to shape their own futures.
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This email was originally shared over email on September 17, 2026.
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