Kenya – Shelves Go Dry, Services Collapse, Anti-rights Forces Surge And Deepen The Crises

Monday, 10 August 2026

Two health and gender rights leaders delivered a stark assessment of what happens when major external funding disappears overnight and organised opposition fills the vacuum. The sudden withdrawal of US government's funding support has not merely reduced services - it has fractured health systems, emptied pharmacy shelves, driven up unplanned pregnancies and unsafe abortions, and enabled anti-rights groups.

"Shelves go dry": The immediate collapse of care
Nelly Munyasia, Executive Director of the Reproductive Health Network Kenya (RHNK), did not soften her language. “We saw shelves go dry,” she said. When the US Agency for International Development (USAID) stop-work order took effect in January 2025, a system that had long operated in silos simply stopped functioning. HIV treatment, lifesaving antiretroviral refills, routine check-ups, counselling and testing outreaches, and community-based services for women, girls and key populations came to a standstill.

Continued: https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO2608/S00053/shelves-go-dry-services-collapse-anti-rights-forces-surge-and-deepen-the-crises.htm

Kenya’s abortion taboo is killing thousands of women

Nairobi (AFP) – Kenya has one of the highest abortion rates in the world, yet US and religious pressure means the government is afraid of discussing the issue -- a combination that causes thousands of maternal deaths, according to figures from the African Population and Health Research Centre (APHRC).

July 3, 2026

Abortion is illegal in Kenya, but allowed whenever "the life or health of the mother is in danger" -- a loophole wide enough for hundreds of private clinics to operate legally across the east African country.

But it remains taboo for many in the religiously conservative society, and the government refuses to even count how many abortions occur.

Continued: https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20260703-kenya-s-abortion-taboo-is-killing-thousands-of-women

Expanded global gag rule puts Kenya’s maternal and child health at risk

Monday, February 02, 2026
By Linet Owoko

Kenya risks losing decades of progress in maternal and child health due to the expanded Global Gag Rule, a US policy that restricts organisations receiving American funding from providing, referring for, or advocating for abortion services.

The Global Gag Rule, also known as the Mexico City Policy, threatens to dismantle the comprehensive reproductive health system that has driven significant improvements in maternal outcomes across the country.

Continued: https://nation.africa/kenya/health/expanded-global-gag-rule-puts-kenya-s-maternal-and-child-health-at-risk-5343070

02.02.2026

News

Global Gag Rule

maternal and child health

maternal mortality

Mexico City policy

Nelly Munyasia

Reproductive Health Network Kenya

‘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

Will 80th UNGA theme of better together unite all world leaders on abortion rights?

By Shobha Shukla
Sep 12, 2025

“Better together: 80 years and more for peace, development and human rights” is the theme of 80^th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). Would it unite world leaders to stop anti-rights and anti-gender pushbacks and deliver on the promises of gender equality and human right to health – where no one is left behind – is yet to be seen.

“Safe abortion right are part of sexual and reproductive health, rights and justice – and not separate. That is why in 1990, we first observed Safe Abortion Day on 28^th September (Campana 28 Septiembre) in Argentina and other places in Latin America, to advocate for decriminalising abortion and access to safe abortion services.

Continued: https://www.modernghana.com/news/1431797/will-80th-unga-theme-of-better-together-unite.html

‘We’re ready to fight’: activists brace as US anti-rights figures descend on Africa

Ultra-conservative campaigners fly in for ‘family values’ conferences to share tactics with African allies who oppose abortion and LGBTQ+ rights

Jessie Williams
Fri 9 May 2025

Advocates for sexual, reproductive and LGBTQ+ rights in Africa are bracing themselves for an influx of some of the most powerful, ultra-conservative campaigners from the US, Poland, Switzerland and the Netherlands over the coming months.

The prominent campaigners, who all oppose abortion, transgender and LGBTQ+ rights, and are against sexuality education, are due to speak at a series of conferences focused on African “family values” and “national sovereignty”.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/may/09/africa-family-values-anti-rights-conferences-conservative-christian-abortion-lgbtq-gender-uganda-kenya-rwanda

09.05.2025

Commentary

Africa Christian Professionals Forum

Alliance Defending Freedom

Ann Kioko

Anti-Homosexuality Act

Austin Ruse

Bettina Roska

Center for Family and Human Rights

Christian Council International

CitizenGO

Fatima Maada Bio

Henk Jan van Schothorst

Joy Asasira

Julius Maada Bio

MSI Reproductive Choices

National Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission

Nelly Munyasia

Okwara Masafu

Pan-African Conference on Family Values

Purposeful

Ramatu Bangura

Reproductive Health Network Kenya

Saoyo Tabitha Griffith

Sarah Shaw

Sharon Slater

Southern Poverty Law Center

Women’s Probono Initiative

A tale of two conferences: women against women as ‘poison of patriarchy’ returns and abortion fight intensifies

Last week, anti-choice campaigners emboldened by current US politics met in New York at the same time as UN delegates gathered to address the widespread inequalities women face. The battle to protect rights has never felt more urgent

Isabel Choat in New York, The Guardian
Sat 22 Mar 2025

In a meeting room on the 27th floor of a swish Manhattan hotel, Denise Mountenay is telling the audience that the right to abortion is “Nazi thinking.” Mountenay regrets her own abortions, and says she has been called by God to spread the word that she and other women “were lied to, deceived, pressured into making the most horrible choice: to choose death instead of life”.

She goes on to list reasons why abortion is “not a safe procedure. [That’s what] they want woman to think – that is a lie.” Many of her claims, including that abortion leads to breast cancer, have been thoroughly disproved by scientific studies.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/mar/22/women-rights-un-anti-abortion-choice-poison-of-patriarchy-returns

22.03.2025

Commentary

69th Commission on the Status of Women

anti-choice bullshit

anti-choice cruelty

anti-choice deception

Campaign Life Coalition

International Planned Parenthood Federation

MSI Reproductive Choices

Nelly Munyasia

Oxfam

Pan-African Conference on Family Values

Project 2025

Richard and Helen DeVos Centre for Life

sexual and reproductive health and rights

Sima Bahous

Southern Poverty Law Center

Trump 2.0 instills fear in African abortion activists

Nita Bhalla
Jan 27, 2025

NAIROBI - African health activists fear a new crackdown on abortion across Africa after President Donald Trump reinstated an anti-abortion pact that cuts off U.S. funds to foreign charities that provide or promote abortions.

When Trump signed the Mexico City Policy, or "global gag rule", during his first term some African charities were forced to close, denying women safe abortions. It also emboldened local opposition to women's reproductive choice.

Continued: https://www.context.news/socioeconomic-inclusion/trump-20-instills-fear-in-african-abortion-activists

How the U.S. Election Has an Outsized Effect on Global Reproductive Health

U.S. politics harm women by tying health workers' hands, even in countries where abortion care is legal.

November 14, 2024
By Christine Mungai, Harvard Public Health

In Nairobi, Kenya, Cate Nyambura is awaiting the outcome of the U.S. presidential election as if it could change her life—which it might. Nyambura is the director of programs at ATHENA Network, a global feminist collective that works primarily on reproductive health and rights, HIV/AIDS, and gender-based violence. “We hold our breath when the U.S. is having elections,” Nyambura says.

Tuesday’s vote will have an enormous effect on how—and whether—Nyambura and countless other health workers and reproductive rights activists around the world can do their jobs. Thanks to a longstanding rule about abortion that shifts each time the White House changes political parties, every U.S. presidential election pits the American mood against other countries’ sovereignty—and the health of their women and girls.

Continued: https://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/how-the-u-s-election-has-an-outsized-effect-on-global-reproductive-health/

Kenya – Haunted by abortion, failed by policymakers

Thousands of women are dying every year in Kenya due to botched backstreet abortions.

Monday, September 30, 2024
By Hellen Shikanda

As we drive along the backstreets of Kibra slums in Nairobi, there are shoes dangling on power lines every few metres. Everyone has their theory as to what that signifies; one of those being that the shoes are mementos for people who died along those streets. The further we drive, the more we encounter them.

While the crammed houses and uninviting narrow alleys between them exude gloomy conditions, there is a visible sense of vibrancy in the people when they are outside.

Continued: https://nation.africa/kenya/health/haunted-by-abortion-failed-by-policymakers-4777778

30.09.2024