Championing access, protecting choice
The Options for Pregnancy Termination (OPTions) Initiative supports innovative approaches that put women, girls, and people with diverse sexual and gender identities in control of where, when, and how they terminate their pregnancy in settings with one or more legal grounds to support it.
Why it matters
Around the world, unsafe abortion remains one of the leading causes of preventable maternal mortality:
25 million+
Unsafe abortions occur each year, nearly half of all abortions performed
7 million
women and girls seek treatment for complications from unsafe abortions annually
27,000
Approximately 27,000 women and girls die each year from unsafe abortion
Our impact
OPTions has funded
63 unique innovations
in 45 countries around the world
OPTions innovations have reached
300,000+
through innovations that focus on access and next-generation methods
Supported
78% locally led
innovations ensuring that the solutions are contextually relevant
64% women-led initiatives
supporting gender equality in leadership
7 promising drugs/devices
in development for next-generation methods
Trained more than
12,000
healthcare workers to provide quality care
Our focus areas
The OPTions Initiative has invested $20M CAD in two critical areas:
Improving access
Developing new or improved approaches to increasing early access to existing abortion products and services in low- and middle-income countries through:
Self-care models
Providing supportive, self-managed medical abortion in non-clinical settings, with or without accompaniment support
Facility service delivery
Improving quality and access to in-person health facility services
Market development
Building supply and demand for safe abortion products through supply chain innovation and awareness-building
Next-generation methods
Developing innovative approaches to pregnancy termination:
Reformed drugs
Testing off-label use or reclassification of existing drugs for abortion
Devices
Creating improved surgical or other equipment for safe abortion
New drugs:
Discovering novel compounds for pregnancy termination, menses induction, or conception interruption
Spotlight: Vitala Global Foundation
Aya Contigo: Expanding access to self-managed care
Vitala Global’s Aya Contigo app provides a comprehensive digital companion for self-managed abortion care, offering reliable information, real-time support, and trusted referrals in highly restrictive environments like Venezuela and Guatemala. This Global South solution was also adapted for Latina/x women in the US and is being expanded for other countries.
Spotlight: IPAS Development Foundation
Compassionate care, powered by AI
Advances government policies on safe abortion through decentralization and task-shifting, with an AI-driven chatbot providing accessible information and a youth-based outreach program. Over 5,500 individuals have been served with abortion and sexual and reproductive health services.
What Sets Us Apart
What sets the OPTions Initiative apart in the ecosystem:
Variable ticket size
$250K – $3M CAD in funding to match innovation stages
Open eligibility
across organizational types with flexible funding instruments
Geographic reach
in 45 countries with legal grounds for pregnancy termination
More than money
with non-financial support and dedicated expertise
Impact focus
on measurable results and transformative change
Path to scale
through multiple funding rounds toward sustainability
Bold frontiers
in research and development for women’s health, addressing historical gaps
Future Directions
Access Innovations
- Building a robust, ready-to-scale innovation pipeline
- Prioritizing local leadership in funded initiatives
- Enhancing measurement of impact while maintaining safeguards
- Promoting ecosystem collaboration toward shared goals
Next-Generation Methods
- Advancing promising innovations to clinical trials and market entry
- Catalyzing more diverse stakeholders to stimulate innovation
- Fostering greater cross-platform engagement between innovators
- Building a coordinated funding ecosystem to distribute risk appropriately
Join Us
Want to learn more? Reach out to us at info@optionsinitiative.org. We invite partners to engage with us in several ways:
Funding support
for access and next-generation methods
Network building
to create stronger support systems
Innovation pipeline
development for safe abortion access and methods
Ecosystem catalyst
to build a supportive environment
Thought partnership
to share lessons and insights
Event collaboration
at key global forums
Together, we can innovate for women’s health globally and work toward our 2025-2030 goals of reaching 2 million people with reproductive services, improving 500,000 lives through safe abortion care, and developing new and improved methods of abortion.