‘Coercive’ Trump-led US health deals could cause global abortion access to collapse, charities warn

Special Report: Leading NGOs fear the deals in Africa – offering financial assistance in exchange for things like mining rights and access to health data – are worded vaguely enough for the US to impose restrictions on reproductive rights

Rachel Schraer Global Health Correspondent
Friday 16 January 2026

'Coercive' health agreements between the US and poorer countries could block them from spending their own tax money on things Donald Trump’s administration disagrees with, leading NGOs warn – risking already-fragile access to legal abortion collapsing.

After a complete freeze on foreign aid spending when Trump took office, the US is now in the process of striking new funding agreements with African governments. These promise aid money in exchange for certain conditions – from mining rights and access to valuable patient data, to agreements to spend national health budgets on priorities dictated by America. The deals replace a patchwork of previous health agreements under the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which has been dismantled during Trump’s first year back in the White House.

Continued: https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-abortion-health-aid-africa-b2900590.html

‘Trojan horse moment’: anti-rights groups seize chance to fill void left by US aid cuts

Ultra-conservative Christian organisations look to reshape global health landscape as new aid agreements open door to demands restricting family planning services

Isabel Choat
Wed 17 Dec 2025

The sudden stop work order on USAID in January 2025 sent shock waves around the world. Many health clinics were immediately shut down, leaving millions without access to vital medicines and facilities, with potentially deadly consequences, especially for HIV patients, children, and women and adolescent girls.

To many, the subsequent axing of 83% of USAID programmes seemed like pure nihilism, engineered by ideologues who wanted to kill off the agency. But there was a long-term vision behind the destruction. The gutting of USAID has cleared a path for the next phase of a plan to reshape the global health landscape, say reproductive justice campaigners.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/dec/17/trojan-horse-moment-anti-rights-groups-fill-void-us-aid-cuts

Are abortion rights at risk as African governments negotiate with US?

As African governments sit down with U.S. negotiators to reshape health partnerships, researchers are warning that abortion access could be caught in the crosshairs.

By Amy Fallon
17 December 2025

A new regional study shows that abortion rights in West and Central Africa often exist in law but not in reality — a disconnect researchers fear could deepen as African governments negotiate new, bilateral health agreements with the United States.

Research, conducted by Rutgers and the Centre de Recherche en Reproduction Humaine et en Démographie, or CERRHUD, found that women and girls in Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Togo, and Cameroon faced barriers in accessing safe abortions, including overlapping systems of law, health care, and social norms, despite the countries ratifying the Maputo Protocol. The protocol is the first international treaty to recognize abortion as a human right under certain circumstances.

Continued: https://www.devex.com/news/are-abortion-rights-at-risk-as-african-governments-negotiate-with-us-111565

Holding the Trump Administration Accountable for Wasting Millions of Dollars of Birth Control

December 15, 2025
Center for Reproductive Rights

The Trump administration will let tens of millions of dollars’ worth of contraception paid for by taxpayers expire rather than distribute it as foreign aid. The contraception, representing a value of at least $10 million and possibly as much as $40 million, was earmarked for women and girls in sub-Saharan Africa—where its loss could result in more than a million unintended pregnancies and thousands of maternal deaths. Multiple humanitarian organizations have offered to buy the birth control, but the administration has refused.

On August 29, 2025, the Center for Reproductive Rights filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for information about the administration’s decision to let the contraception—and millions in taxpayer money—go to waste. The administration has not responded to the request. The Center is now suing.

Continued: https://reproductiverights.org/cases/holding-trump-accountable-wasting-millions-birth-control/

15.12.2025

News

Center for Reproductive Rights

Global Gag Rule

Helms Amendment

U.S. Agency for International Development

The Ripple Effects of the U.S. Retreat from International Reproductive Care

U.S. cuts to global health funding are putting reproductive rights, healthcare access and human rights at risk worldwide. Human rights experts discuss exactly what’s happening—and what would stop the suffering.

10/19/2025
by Jaime M. Gher, Payal Shah and Floriane Borel

The U.S. has long been the largest donor to global health programs, but under the Trump administration, that support is rapidly disappearing. The resulting funding cuts are devastating reproductive health access, disease prevention efforts and human rights around the world.

In this Q&A, global health and human rights experts Jaime M. Gher, Payal Shah and Floriane Borel break down the global ripple effects—and the urgent need for action.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2025/10/19/usa-trump-international-global-health-aid-cuts/

AWAC Uganda marks Safe Motherhood Day with call for community-led access to safe abortion

NELSON MANDELA | PML Daily
October 8, 2025

KAMPALA — The Alliance of Women Advocating for Change (AWAC Uganda), a sex work-led organization, has commemorated Safe Motherhood International Day with a passionate call for bodily autonomy, dignity, and community-led access to safe abortion for marginalized women across Uganda.

The commemoration, which is normally held on September 28, was this year marked on October 7 to accommodate AWAC’s grassroots network spread across various districts. The celebrations began in Kasese, continued to Chotera, and concluded at AWAC’s secretariat in Kampala.

Continued: https://pmldaily.com/features/health/2025/10/awac-uganda-marks-safe-motherhood-day-with-call-for-community-led-access-to-safe-abortion.html

Trump plans to block funding to groups that promote diversity policies abroad

The administration wants to expand a policy that already restricts U.S. funding to foreign groups that promote abortion access.

By Carmen Paun and Nahal Toosi

Oct 1, 2025

The Trump administration plans to block U.S. funding to organizations that do work abroad on issues related to gender identity and diversity, according to a U.S. official and nonprofit groups informed of the plan.

It’s a major expansion of the Mexico City Policy, which prevents foreign groups receiving U.S. global health funding from providing or promoting abortion, even if those programs are paid for with other sources of financing.

Continued: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/01/trump-plans-block-funding-groups-promote-diversity-policies-abroad-00591078

01.10.2025

News

Beth Schlachter

Global Gag Rule

Global Health Council

Mexico City policy

MSI Reproductive Choices

Global Trends in Opposition to Women’s Reproductive Autonomy

10 September 2025
International Confederation of Midwives

Sexual and reproductive health and rights are increasingly under threat. The Trump Administration in the United States has restricted dialogue about and access to contraception and safe abortion causing a global ripple effect. A troubling trend is emerging: other governments and international organisations are following suit by limiting funding and avoiding the language of reproductive rights.

Defunding SRHR – Global Impact and Consequences
The Trump Administration has overseen the dismantling of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), withdrawn 500 million USD in global health funding, and terminated all US contributions to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the UN agency for sexual and reproductive health. The result is the destabilisation of global sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) initiatives, undermining progress toward gender equality, jeopardising the 2030 Agenda for achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Continued: https://internationalmidwives.org/global-trends-in-opposition-to-womens-reproductive-autonomy/

USA – Policy over people: U.S. to burn $9.7M in birth control

Critics say policy conflates abortion and birth control; aid groups say supplies could have helped 650,000 people

By CK Smith
July 27, 2025

A stockpile of nearly $9.7 million in U.S.-funded contraceptives is set to be destroyed in Europe, following a policy shift that blocked their distribution to international aid organizations.

The supplies, including long-acting contraceptive implants, IUDs, injectables and birth control pills, have been stored in a warehouse in Geel, Belgium, since January. Purchased through U.S. foreign aid programs, the products were intended for distribution across low-income countries through USAID’s global family-planning initiatives.

Continued: https://www.salon.com/2025/07/27/policy-over-people-u-s-to-burn-9-7m-in-birth-control/

27.07.2025

News

burning of contraception

Global Gag Rule

Mexico City policy

MSI Reproductive Choices

The First 100 Days of the Trump-Vance Administration: Attacks on Reproductive Freedom and Scientific Evidence

Amy Friedrich-Karnik, Anna Bernstein, Emma Stoskopf-Ehrlich, Guttmacher Institute
April 24, 2025

In its first 100 days, the Trump-Vance administration has attempted to dismantle and disrupt a broad range of domestic and international programs and policies, sowing chaos and negatively impacting the lives of millions. Through executive orders, funding freezes, contract terminations, mass layoffs and other actions—many of which have been challenged as unconstitutional—these policy changes have, by design, had an especially detrimental impact on the sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) of people in the US and across the world.

These actions constitute an attack on both science and the basic value of reproductive freedom. Their impact has been immediate and will continue to have long-term and far-reaching consequences.

Continued: https://www.guttmacher.org/2025/04/first-100-days-trump-vance-administration-attacks-reproductive-freedom-and-scientific

24.04.2025