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

Health advocates in Africa worry Trump will reimpose abortion ‘gag rule’ governing US aid

Women's health advocates in Africa are worried that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump will again invoke the so-called global gag rule, a policy that cuts off U.S. government funding for groups that offer abortion-related services

By FARAI MUTSAKA Associated Press
November 19, 2024

EPWORTH, Zimbabwe -- Carrying her infant daughter, 19-year-old Sithulisiwe Moyo waited two hours to get birth-control pills from a tent pitched in a poor settlement on the outskirts of Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare.

The outreach clinic in Epworth provides Moyo with her best shot at achieving her dream of returning to school. “I am too young to be a baby-making machine," she said. "At least this clinic helps me avoid another pregnancy.”

But the free service funded by the U.S. government, the world’s largest health donor, might soon be unavailable.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/health-advocates-africa-worry-trump-reimpose-abortion-gag-116036473

Nigeria – Economic hardship plunges married women into unsafe abortion, ignoring life-threatening risks

Low uptake of family planning services, aided by economic hardship, is taking its toll on some married couples who, burdened by unplanned pregnancies, now resort to unsafe abortions despite the associated risks.

30th June 2024
By Angela Onwuzoo

Mrs Bisi Lateef (not her real name) borrowed the sum of N15,000 from a friend to procure an abortion in February, and it took her one month to finally pay it back.

The woman, now in her early 40s, recalled what she experienced while ending her fifth pregnancy. According to her, she would have loved to keep it, but the resources to care for another baby were not available.

Continued: https://punchng.com/economic-hardship-plunges-married-women-into-unsafe-abortion-ignoring-life-threatening-risks/

We need to talk about how U.S. policy is sabotaging reproductive rights in Africa

A controversial US policy is jeopardizing family planning services and fueling a maternal health crisis in Ethiopia and Uganda.

By Annabel Rocha
May 20, 2024

The lack of reproductive health services in Uganda and Ethiopia leaves those experiencing unwanted pregnancies with few options, and poorer communities with even fewer. Only 13 to 16% of poor, married women in Uganda use modern contraception, according to Guttmacher, resulting in four in 10 births being unplanned. In Ethiopia, 4.5 million women have an unmet need for modern contraception, with 46% of the estimated 4.6 million pregnancies in the country unintended. To support family planning services, these governments rely on international and U.S. funding, which has devastating consequences for health initiatives when support is withdrawn.

Continued: https://www.reckon.news/family/2024/05/how-us-policy-is-sabotaging-reproductive-rights-in-africa.html

Ghana – Sunyani Adolescent Parliament advocates access to contraceptives to promote safe sex

April 15, 2024
By Dennis Peprah, GNA

Sunyani, April 15, GNA – The Sunyani Municipal Adolescent Parliament has called on the Ghana AIDS Commission (GAC) and the Ghana Health Service (GHS) to support young people to easily access condoms and contraceptives to promote safe sex.

The also called for intensified sex education, proper use of contraceptives, and access to family planning services.

Continued: https://gna.org.gh/2024/04/sunyani-adolescent-parliament-advocates-access-to-contraceptives-to-promote-safe-sex/

15.04.2024

News

Daniel Sarkodie Frimpong

family planning services

Ghana Health Service

Raphael Godlove Ahenu

Sunyani Municipal Adolescent Parliament

Africa: ‘Let’s Treat Sexual and Reproductive Health Services as a Regular Part of Health Care to Remove Stigma’

11 MARCH 2022
INTERVIEW By Sethi Ncube

Johannesburg — Too many girls and women continue to die and face both the short and long-term repercussions of unsafe abortions, yet potentially life-saving information on receiving quality care for abortion-related complications, remains in short supply.

To address this gap, the UN system for Human Reproduction Research (HRP), the World Health Organization (WHO) and partners, published new data on the issue, in the latest edition of the International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics. The newly published papers also explore the experiences of adolescents and women in accessing support in insecure environments, reports UN News.

Continued: https://allafrica.com/stories/202203110732.html

Texas Is the Future of Abortion in America

March 6, 2022
By Mary Tuma

For half a year, Roe v. Wade — the 1973 Supreme Court decision that guarantees abortion rights for all Americans — has been effectively moot in the second largest state in the country, home to about 10 percent of the nation’s reproductive-age women.

On Sept. 1, the Supreme Court allowed Texas Senate Bill 8 to go into effect — the most restrictive abortion law to do so in the United States since Roe. There’s a good chance that Texans will not see their reproductive rights restored any time soon — because Roe itself could be overturned or gutted before the fate of S.B. 8 is resolved in the courts.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/06/opinion/abortion-texas-sb-8-roe-v-wade.html

Sri Lanka – Better family planning and counselling needed to reduce unsafe abortions: Local study

Dec 20, 2021
BY Ruwan Laknath Jayakody

Until the laws for the legalisation of abortion for more conditions are enacted in Sri Lanka, family planning services and counselling should be offered especially in pre-marital, pre-pregnancy and post-pregnancy periods in order to reduce the number of unsafe abortions.

This recommendation was made in an original article on “Abortion and its legalisation: An overview of the opinion of doctors in the Colombo South Teaching Hospital, Kalubowila” which was authored by ….

Continued: https://www.nation.lk/online/better-family-planning-and-counselling-needed-to-reduce-unsafe-abortions-local-study-155590.html

20.12.2021

Featured

News

family planning services

maternal mortality

R.P.A. Dinethri

World Health Organisation

Uganda – Spike in unplanned pregnancies, abortions

World Contraception Day takes place on September 26th every year. Under its campaign, every pregnancy is wanted. But in Uganda, this vision came under attack because of the lockdown which made access to sex easy but hard or impossible to family planning services and information. The result was an explosion of unplanned pregnancies and abortions as Agnes Kyotalengerire found out.

By Agnes Kyotalengerire

6th October
2020

Monicak
Kayesu' story

When Monica Kayesu, 36, a mother of four, sought family planning
services earlier this year, she settled for an intrauterine device (IUD). Unfortunately, the lockdown took effect at on
March 20th, the day she was to have the coil inserted. With public transport
banned, Kayesu could not get it inserted in April and conceived in May. She is
five months pregnant and cannot come to terms with the idea of having a fifth
child.

Continued: https://www.newvision.co.ug/news/1528596/spike-unplanned-pregnancies-abortions

Africa: Essential Women’s Health Services at Risk Amid Covid-19

By JOHN LAZAME TINDANBIL
Oct 4, 2020

Bolgatanga, Ghana — The COVID-19 pandemic is setting back important progress on women’s health across Africa. There are many reasons for this, including lockdown restrictions which are keeping women at home, concerns about catching the virus, and the closure of women’s health services. These problems are not simple ones, but they to be acknowledged and addressed.

In my own country, Ghana, where my organisation runs safe abortion and family planning services in the north of the country, we saw a sharp drop in the number of women accessing our services from April to August 2020, compared to the same period last year.

Continued: https://thestreetjournal.org/2020/10/africa-essential-womens-health-services-at-risk-amid-covid-19/