January of 2020, Optio transitioned from being a program under the OASIS Initiative to an independent organization. We have since expanded our mission, added two new programs, and broadened the scope of our sexual and reproductive rights work to include both women and girls.  

 Our work continues to focus on Central America, a region where emergency contraception is banned and abortion is prohibited, even to save the life of the mother in most countries. As a result, women and and adolescent girls from Central America are often forced to carry out unwanted pregnancies against their will or to seek out clandestine, often unsafe abortions, that put their lives at risk. 

Our team of lawyers, OB-GYNs, and social scientists are using three main strategies to improve the reproductive health needs of women and girls in this region: 1) Providing access to safe abortion and other vital reproductive health technologies, 2) Improving knowledge about reproductive health services and safe abortion through education, and 3) liberalizing abortion laws and policies.  Every project that we carry out is done in partnership/collaboration with local grassroots organizations.  

We are grateful to OASIS for supporting us over the past five years and helping us to become the organization we are today. We continue to maintain a close relationship to its leadership and look forward to collaborating on many important projects in the coming years. 

Now, we are excited about the new opportunities that come with independence and are looking forward to spending the next decade turning our vision into a reality.