December 14, 2018 

Greetings,

Gynuity turned 15 this year! We began in 2003 with a small team willing to challenge the status quo, and that same spirit lives on today in our two dozen staff and consultants who have stayed true to our original vision. We are proud of the contributions our small organization has made in improving access to reproductive and maternal health care in the U.S. and in the many other countries where we have worked. In this issue’s Spotlight on… , we look back over our first 15 years, highlighting just a few of our achievements thanks to active collaborations with partners worldwide and the generous support of our funders. 

We have learned that change is possible, but we also know that even more is needed for each individual to have access to high quality reproductive and maternal health services – delivered where, when, and how needed. Over the last year, we have developed a Strategic Plan that sets out our priorities through 2023, defines the core approaches to our work, and outlines how we plan to make contraception, abortion, pregnancy and childbirth safer and more compatible with individual choices. 

We have our eyes set on 2019 and are looking forward to continued engagement with the global health community in the work ahead.
Beverly Winikoff
President
Five-Year Strategic Plan
Gynuity's Strategic Plan , is framed around a set of four interconnected goals to shape and guide our work through 2023. The first three goals are in the service of meeting our overarching goal of making safe and effective reproductive and maternal health care accessible to all, whereas the fourth goal outlines efforts to make a stronger and more effective organization to achieve our programmatic aims.

  • Goal 1: Conduct research at the frontiers of reproductive and maternal health. Leverage our research and policy work to simplify practices and policies for providing contraception, abortion, and maternal and newborn care.

  • Goal 2: Influence policy and practice. Develop research, advocacy and training to inform reproductive and maternal health service delivery and policy in concert with existing and new partners.

  • Goal 3: Strengthen communications for impact. Translate our research and programmatic findings into compelling resources to impact policy and practice at global, national, and local levels. 

  • Goal 4: Strengthen and advance our organization. Continue to grow and evolve as a financially healthy organization by diversifying funding, improving internal communications, and supporting staff leadership and development. 
Gynuity's Approach

Our approach starts at the community level where we listen to women, providers and policymakers, and work with them to create services that are safe, of high quality and person-centered. Through conversations and active collaborations with partners on the ground, we fill evidence gaps by using basic science research, clinical research, and implementation research to achieve proof of concept for new models of care. We use our new information to influence change and advocate for improvements in policy and practice. Read more here .
Where We Work
The map below shows the varied places where we have worked over the years.
Communications for Impact
As part of our Strategic goal to increase the impact of our communications we have worked on increasing the accessibility of the resources on our website and offering new ones. We welcome you to browse our new website , including our Image Bank and our improved Resources page.

Spotlight On...
For this issue of our Newsletter, we highlight just a few of our achievements in using evidence to shift global dialogue and norms to improve reproductive and maternal health care. Over our first 15 years, Gynuity has:

Expanded use of medical abortion pills
Completed seminal clinical research demonstrating that medical abortion pills (mifepristone and misoprostol) are safe, effective and desirable to women, which ultimately paved the way for greater access to care in many countries, including Bangladesh, Mexico, Tunisia, the United States, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.

Conceived and implemented large-scale clinical and community-based research demonstrating that misoprostol, a pill that can be used to prevent and control excessive blood loss during childbirth, is safe and effective and a reasonable alternative to oxytocin for these purposes.

Developed innovative medical abortion telemedicine service delivery model
Created the TelAbortion Project the United States’ first direct-to-patient telemedicine abortion service enabling women in some states to access medical abortion without going to an abortion clinic.

Advocated for access to essential medicines
Applied for and obtained WHO Essential Medicines List approvals for three misoprostol indications: incomplete abortion (2009), PPH prevention (2011), and PPH treatment (2015).

Generated evidence for simpler ways to treat severe pregnancy hypertension by demonstrating a safe and effective role for oral anti-hypertensive drugs that may allow treatment in settings where intravenous administration and careful fetal monitoring are not possible.

Demonstrated that contraceptive injectables and implants can be “quickstarted” at the initial medical abortion visit, eliminating the need for a return visit and reducing exposure to unwanted pregnancy.

Convened and coordinated advocacy actions to protect mifepristone in the U.S.
Established the Mifepristone Coalition bringing together more than 150 organizations working in concert to increase access to mifepristone medical abortion in the United States. 

Read an extended list of our achievements.
And Finally….
We salute the women who shaped the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which, like Gynuity, celebrates a landmark anniversary this year. December 10th marked 70 years since the United Nations General Assembly adopted this milestone document proclaiming the inalienable rights to which everyone is inherently entitled - regardless of race, color, religion, sex, language, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, or other status.
Angela Jurdak (Lebanon), Fryderyka Kalinowski (Poland), Bodgil Begtrup (Denmark), Minerva Bernardino (Dominican Republic), and Hansa Mehta (India), delegates to the Sub-commission on the Status of Women, New York, May 1946.