Trump Wants to Make African Countries Share Abortion Data to Get AIDS Funding

An aid agreement template would require countries to share vast amounts of health data, including on abortion, to receive funds to combat HIV and other infectious diseases.

Jessica Washington
December 1 2025

The Trump administration plans to condition global health assistance on foreign countries sharing significant amounts of health data with the United States, including on abortion, according to a template for an aid agreement obtained by The Intercept.

The template agreement, which references the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR — but also applies funding to fight malaria, tuberculosis, and other pathogens — would require countries that receive global health assistance to share a broad range of health care and pathogen data for the next 25 years.)

Continued: https://archive.is/ig9Q6
(https://theintercept.com/2025/12/01/pepfar-hiv-abortion-health-data-trump/)


Trump’s aid cuts in east Africa led to unwanted abortion and babies being born with HIV – report

Doctors, nurses, patients and other experts describe the loss of decades of progress in beating the virus in 100 days after Pepfar was disrupted

Kat Lay Global health correspondent
Wed 3 Sep 2025

Aid cuts in east Africa have led to cases of babies being born with HIV because mothers could not get medication, a rise in life-threatening infections, and at least one woman having an unwanted abortion, according to interviews with medical staff, patients and experts.

A report by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) sets out dozens of examples of the impact of disruption to Pepfar – the president’s emergency plan for aids relief – in Tanzania and Uganda.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/sep/03/trumps-aid-cuts-in-east-africa-led-to-unwanted-abortions-and-babies-being-born-with-hiv-report


The Trump administration has launched a “war on development”, leading human rights organisations say

3 Feb 2025 

Joint statement by ILGA World and International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF)

GENEVA – The Trump administration is using foreign aid as a deadly political weapon, ILGA World and International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) said today, and millions of people are already in dire straits because of its policies.

The executive order implementing a 90-day pause in US foreign development aid is wreaking havoc on the lifesaving work of human rights, civil society, and grassroots organisations —according to ILGA World and IPPF.

Continued: https://reliefweb.int/report/world/trump-administration-has-launched-war-development-leading-human-rights-organisations-say


Trump expected to quickly revive ‘global gag rule’ on abortion

by Alejandra O’Connell-Domenech
01/19/25

President-elect Trump is expected to reinstate a controversial policy soon after taking office that would further bar foreign nongovernmental organizations that perform, counsel on or provide information on abortions abroad from receiving U.S. funding.  

The Mexico City Policy, referred to as the global gag rule by its opponents, was first introduced during the second Reagan administration and has been rescinded by every Democratic president and reinstated by every Republican president since then. Trump previously restored the policy four days into his first term before President Biden rescinded it again a week into his own. 

Continued: https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5092735-trump-abortion-mexico-city-policy/


Anti-AIDS program in peril after US finds nurses in Mozambique provided abortions

By Simon Lewis and Patricia Zengerle
January 16, 2025

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The flagship U.S. aid program on HIV/AIDS is in jeopardy, a senior Republican warned on Thursday, after U.S. officials said four nurses in Mozambique performed abortions that are banned under the multibillion-dollar program that has saved millions of lives globally.

Service providers that get funding through the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) are barred from providing abortion services under rules against U.S. foreign assistance being used for abortion-related activities, but the program has still faced criticism from anti-abortion Republicans.

Continued: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/anti-aids-program-peril-after-us-finds-nurses-mozambique-provided-abortions-2025-01-16/


The Terrifying Global Reach of the American Anti-Abortion Movement

Conservatives have not limited their attack on reproductive rights to the United States. They’ve been busy imposing their will on other countries, too—with disastrous consequences for millions of poor women.

Jodi Enda
March 18, 2024

Because Editar Ochieng knew the three young men, she didn’t think twice when they beckoned her into a house in an isolated area near the Nairobi River. One was like a brother; the other two were her neighbors in the sprawling Kenyan slum of Kibera.

Ochieng did not know the woman who performed her abortion. She and a friend scoured Nairobi until they found her, an untrained practitioner who worked in the secrecy of her home and charged a fraction of what a medical professional would. Mostly, what Ochieng remembers is the agony when this stranger inserted something into her vagina and “pierced” her womb. “It was really very painful. Really, really, really painful,” she told me. Afterward, Ochieng said, she cut up her mattress to use in place of sanitary pads, which she could not afford. She was 16 years old.

Continued: https://newrepublic.com/article/179485/american-anti-abortion-movement-terrifying-global-reach


Will U.S. Abortion Wars End a Successful Foreign Policy in Africa?

Conservatives in Washington have blocked the reauthorization of PEPFAR, endangering the health of HIV-positive Africans.

By Nosmot Gbadamosi
NOVEMBER 1, 2023

The Most Successful U.S. International Health Policy Is Unraveling
Fierce opposition from conservative lawmakers is casting doubt on the future of PEPFAR, the U.S. government’s most successful global-health program, which was set up two decades ago by the George W. Bush administration to address the HIV epidemic.

Since 2003, PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, has funded antiretroviral treatment for more than 20 million people across more than 50 countries in its 20-year existence. The project has donated about $110 billion to health projects globally, yet a decision to fund the program’s next five-year cycle has become embroiled in the domestic abortion debate. Authorization for PEPFAR lapsed at the end of September after it failed to get congressional approval.

Continued: https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/11/01/bush-pepfar-africa-aids-abortion-wars-end-a-successful-foreign-policy-in-africa/


PEPFAR Reauthorization: The Debate About Abortion

Kellie Moss and Jennifer Kates
Sep 21, 2023

Despite a long history of broad and bipartisan support, reauthorization of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is currently being held up by congressional debate around abortion. PEPFAR, first created in 2003 by President George W. Bush and reauthorized three times thus far, is the U.S. government’s signature global health effort in the fight against HIV. Widely regarded as one of the most successful programs in global health history, PEPFAR reports having saved 25 million lives due to its efforts, and KFF analyses have found a significant impact of the program beyond HIV, including large reductions in both maternal and child mortality and significant increases in some childhood immunization rates. Still, its fourth reauthorization has been drawn into broader U.S. political debate about abortion, in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision (which overturned the nationwide right to obtain an abortion), even though U.S. law prohibits the use of U.S. foreign assistance, including PEPFAR funding, for abortion. This policy watch provides an overview of the current debate and issues.

Continued: https://www.kff.org/policy-watch/pepfar-reauthorization-the-debate-about-abortion/


Republican opposition to abortion threatens global HIV/AIDS program that has saved 25 million lives

BY EVELYNE MUSAMBI, FARNOUSH AMIRI, CARA ANNA AND ELLEN KNICKMEYER
September 9, 2023

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The graves at the edge of the orphanage tell a story of despair. The rough planks in the cracked earth are painted with the names of children, most of them dead in the 1990s. That was before the HIV drugs arrived.

Today, the orphanage in Kenya’s capital is a happier, more hopeful place for children with HIV. But a political fight taking place in the United States is threatening the program that helps to keep them and millions of others around the world alive.

Continued: https://apnews.com/article/africa-hiv-aids-united-states-d9ef380acba1a0e96409197b39dea7fa


US anti-abortion “gag rule” hits women hard: what we found in Kenya and Madagascar

February 4, 2021
Sara E Casey, Emily A Maistrellis, Terry McGovern

US President Joe Biden has reversed a Trump administration policy that prohibited US funding for nongovernmental groups that provide or refer patients for abortions.

The Global Gag Rule, also known as the Mexico City Policy, was enacted in 1984 by President Ronald Reagan. Since its introduction, the policy has been instated by each Republican president and rescinded by each Democrat president.

Continued: https://theconversation.com/us-anti-abortion-gag-rule-hits-women-hard-what-we-found-in-kenya-and-madagascar-154434