President’s Message

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

The year 2020 was characterized by transformational change and far-felt effects on economies and societies everywhere. At Gynuity, we adapted to meet a fast-changing world, troubleshooting new challenges and embracing new ways of working.

A huge thank you to Gynuity staff who showed tremendous resilience and to our partners worldwide who, in spite of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, kept many project activities on track and worked with us to disseminate the findings from completed research and even to launch new studies spanning the spectrum of our work.

We responded early when it became apparent that the pandemic would create additional, serious challenges in safe abortion access. We convened partners, reviewed the most up-to-date evidence, and issued urgent guidance for providers on how to implement safe medical abortion care limiting or even eliminating in-person contact with clinics and providers. On the strength of evidence from our ongoing TelAbortion project, we were in a position to demonstrate telemedicine as a feasible and acceptable approach for early medical abortion.

We have always viewed mifepristone abortion as a revolutionary technology with the potential to increase autonomy and choice in the reproductive realm. Our aim has been to contribute to its availability in every way. To mark the 20th anniversary since the registration of mifepristone in the U.S., this year we reflected on our work impacting the field of abortion with pills.

In 2020, Gynuity Health Projects turned a corner, completing the transition to a 501c3 non-profit organization. We invested a great deal of time and energy in bringing to life the new entity, which will allow us to grow and evolve as an organization. As part of this process, our Board of Directors was formed, including high-level public health and women’s rights experts who are committed to helping us accomplish our goals and push boundaries in global reproductive and maternal health care.

Our work will continue to build on our successes and learnings. We look forward to collaborating closely with new and longstanding partners to prioritize activities for their settings and to supporting health systems in expanding their horizons, making services more usable to those who need them. We will continue to push boundaries with creative energy, developing new evidence and approaches that put power in the hands of consumers.

For now, we invite you to take a look at some of our work from 2020 that prioritizes access to timely, acceptable, affordable and high quality reproductive and maternal health care.

Beverly Winikoff
President