Maternal Mortality: Bringing new life into the world shouldn’t end with death

Every two minutes, a woman dies from pregnancy or childbirth complications worldwide – even though most maternal deaths are avoidable. When women have access to timely and appropriate obstetric care their outcomes improve dramatically.

27 Mar 2026
Médecins sans frontières

More than 700 women died each day from pregnancy and childbirth complications in 2023, according to a 2025 UN report. Most of these women lived in low- and middle-income countries and did not receive the care they needed. On top of that, pregnant women are especially vulnerable during wars, natural disasters, displacement, and extreme violence.

Most causes of maternal mortality are similar in many different contexts, which means they are not linked to specific issues related to a particular country. Instead, they are usually the result of structural shortcomings and negligence.

Continued: https://msf.org.au/article/stories-patients-staff/maternal-mortality-bringing-new-life-world-shouldnt-end-death

27.03.2026

Commentary

Alida Fiossona

Doctors Without Borders

Emmanuelle Bamongo

maternal mortality

Medicins sans Frontieres

How U.S.A.I.D. Birth Control Meant for Africa Was Ruined

The Trump administration had options for offloading contraceptives once destined for Africa, a newly obtained memo shows. Instead, it has let them collect dust and go bad.

By Jeanna Smialek and Stephanie Nolen, New York Times
March 26, 2026

Millions of dollars’ worth of contraceptives that have been stranded in Belgium since the Trump administration dismantled American foreign aid are no longer usable, according to a newly obtained memo written for a Trump administration official.

About $9.7 million of contraceptives purchased by the United States Agency for International Development and originally destined for low-income nations in Africa got stuck in Belgium after the Trump administration shut down the agency last year.

Continued: https://archive.is/b9eUZ

(https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/26/world/europe/usaid-contraception-birth-control-belgium-africa.html)

Aid Held Hostage: How Trump’s Expanded Global Gag Rule Weaponizes Foreign Assistance

How can a foreign aid policy that primarily hurts women and children be branded “pro-life”?

March 5, 2026
by Terry McGovern, Sabrina Das and Katherine Hartley

Global maternal and child health is already in crisis. Hundreds of thousands of preventable pregnancy-related deaths occur annually, and progress to address maternal mortality has stalled globally.

Now, the Trump administration’s expanded global gag rule—which took effect last week—will accelerate this already dangerous backslide. They’ve framed the policy as a reaffirmation of “pro-life” values. It is not. It is an ideological intervention into global health that ignores decades of evidence.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/05/global-gag-rule-trump/

05.03.2026

Commentary

child mortality

Doctors Without Borders

MSF condemns sweeping expansion of the Global Gag Rule

The US Government’s new Promoting Human Flourishing in Foreign Assistance policy entrenches discrimination against the world’s most vulnerable.

January 27, 2026

On Friday, the Trump Administration introduced its new Promoting Human Flourishing in Foreign Assistance (PHFFA) policy, which expands the Global Gag Rule to its most extreme version to date and imposes alarming new conditions, in an attempt to reshape US foreign assistance along ideological lines.

The policy intensifies its prohibition on safe abortion care and adds extensive restrictions on other categories of health and rights, including gender-affirming and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) frameworks. These moves directly contradict established medical consensus and evidence-based standards for delivering effective health care and humanitarian assistance.

Continued: https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/latest/msf-condemns-sweeping-expansion-global-gag-rule

The shared challenges of giving birth

The stories of patients from Nigeria, Central African Republic, and Bangladesh illustrate the shared challenges pregnant women face trying to access care.

January 22, 2026
Doctors without Borders

Every two minutes, a woman dies from complications of pregnancy or childbirth. Most of these deaths would be preventable with timely care.

Timely care, however, can be difficult to access in many of the countries where Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) works, where violence, poverty, insecurity, and other obstacles can delay care or push it out of reach when it’s needed. For a pregnant woman with complications like eclampsia or hemorrhage, this can be life-threatening.

Continued: https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/latest/shared-challenges-giving-birth

The U.S. said it would burn $9.7 million of birth control. Its fate is still unclear

September 16, 2025
By Rachel Treisman

For months, $9.7 million worth of birth control meant for women in low-income countries has sat stranded in a Belgian warehouse — apparently destined for destruction — as a result of the Trump administration's freeze on foreign aid.

…Humanitarians' hopes were seemingly dashed last week, when the New York Times, citing a statement from USAID, reported that the contraceptives had been destroyed. But the next day, it later reported, Belgian authorities entered the warehouse and confirmed the contraceptives were still there.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/sections/goats-and-soda/2025/09/16/nx-s1-5511304/birth-control-foreign-aid-destruction-belgium-warehouse

Setting fire to women’s health

The Trump administration would rather burn contraceptives than help women and girls in developing nations.

Jennifer Weiss-Wolf
Aug 13, 2025

According to congressional Republicans and President Donald Trump, the “big, beautiful bill” is all about eliminating fiscal waste and preventing fraud. Yet the State Department is poised to burn millions of dollars—quite literally, in a French incinerator—paying $167,000 to set ablaze a $9.7 million stockpile of U.S. taxpayer-funded contraceptives.

For the past few weeks, global reporting has revealed a collection of IUDs, birth control pills, and implants—all viable for usage for several more years—stored in a warehouse in Belgium. Intended for distribution to women around the world—people living in refugee camps, war zones, and under fragile health systems—these supplies were purchased by the U.S. government before the Trump administration’s order freezing foreign aid, shutting down the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and reinstating the Global Gag Rule (a.k.a. the “Mexico City Policy,” which requires foreign non-governmental organizations to certify they will not perform or promote abortion using funding from any source. A damning trifecta, indeed.

Continued; https://contrarian.substack.com/p/setting-fire-to-womens-health

The U.S. is destroying $9.7 million in contraceptives. Is there another option?

July 28, 2025
By Rachel Treisman, NPR

The State Department has confirmed plans to destroy millions of dollars' worth of taxpayer-funded contraceptives meant for women in low-income countries. The controversial move comes as the Trump administration continues to scale back foreign aid.

A stockpile of family planning products — including IUDs, implants and pills — worth $9.7 million has been stuck at a warehouse in Belgium since the administration dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and froze foreign aid earlier this year, according to statements from multiple humanitarian groups and U.S. lawmakers.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/sections/goats-and-soda/2025/07/28/nx-s1-5482742/the-u-s-is-destroying-9-7-million-in-contraceptives-is-there-another-option

USA – ‘A Virtual Abortion Doula in Your Pocket’: Aya Contigo Helps Latinas Find Abortion Care

5/26/2024
by Carrie N. Baker

U.S. abortion bans impact 6.7 million Latinas in the United States—the largest group of women of color impacted by these bans. Many lack insurance, cannot travel and face language and cultural barriers to reproductive healthcare.

To address these barriers, two Canadian physicians—Dr. Roopan Gill and Dr. Genevieve Tam—co-created Aya Contigo, an app with an embedded live virtual chat to help people access contraception and abortion. A project of Vitala Global, the app provides resources for obtaining and using abortion pills, and the chat is staffed by professional counselors who walk users through the process. Launched originally in Venezuela, Aya Contigo began serving the United States in September 2023 with plans to expand to Guatemala.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2024/05/26/spanish-abortion-support-usa-venezuela-latina-women/

Attacks on reproductive health will have devastating consequences worldwide

MSF is committed to ensuring people have access to sexual and reproductive health services, but we cannot do it alone.

January 28, 2025

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) condemns the Trump Administration’s recent reinstatement of the Mexico City Policy, more commonly known as the Global Gag Rule, as well as the US government’s support of the so-called Geneva Consensus Declaration.

The Global Gag Rule prevents organizations abroad from using their own non-US government funds to provide or advocate for safe abortion care as a condition to receive US global health assistance. This includes direct services, as well as information, counseling, and referrals, even in countries where abortion is legal. When the policy was last in place from 2017 to 2021, critical health programs were disrupted and suspended in low- and middle-income countries.

Continued: https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/latest/attacks-reproductive-health-will-have-devastating-consequences-worldwide

28.01.2025