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

Locked Away and Left to Expire: The Trump Administration’s Destructive Denial of Contraceptive Care

Samira Damavandi, Jessica D. Rosenberg, Guttmacher Institute
June 22, 2026

The Trump administration has wasted $434,317 in taxpayer dollars since January 2025 to store contraceptives that it refuses to distribute to women and girls in low-income countries. A report from the Office of Inspector General of US Agency for International Development (USAID) reveals that the administration has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in storage and transportation costs for the $9.7 million worth of family planning supplies that it abandoned in Belgium rather than allowing them to be used. (The supplies were originally purchased by USAID.) With every additional month that passes after June 2026, the administration will spend over $24,000 to store these products, which include birth control pills, implants, injectable contraceptives and IUDs.

This wasteful misuse of US government resources is part of the fallout from the administration’s disastrous and chaotic dismantling of USAID last year, which has already denied tens of millions of people in low-income countries access to the family planning services on which they relied to improve their health and futures.

Continued: https://www.guttmacher.org/2026/06/locked-away-and-left-expire-trump-administrations-destructive-denial-contraceptive-care

22.06.2026

Commentary

Guttmacher Institute

Saving Lives and Taxpayer Dollars Act

UNFPA

United Nations Population Fund

US Agency for International Development

US: Global Health Aid Tied to Harmful Conditions

Pacts Require Abortion Surveillance, Rights to Specimen Sharing, Data Access

June 8, 2026
Human Rights Watch

(Washington, DC) – The United States government is conditioning lifesaving health assistance on broad access to surveillance data and extractive rights to pathogen samples and data for pharmaceutical development, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch issued an assessment of seven bilateral health agreements signed in late 2025 with Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Liberia, and Uganda.

“The agreements show the US intends to condition vital health assistance for millions of people on acquiescence to troubling conditions,” said Julia Bleckner, senior health researcher at Human Rights Watch. “After the sudden and devastating pullback from US assistance in 2025, governments are now being pressured to accept agreements with contingencies that jeopardize human rights.”

Continued: https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/06/08/us-global-health-aid-tied-to-harmful-conditions

08.06.2026

US Agency for International Development

Whistleblower says Trump officials thought USAID did ‘just abortions,’ asked for ‘Barney-style’ slides before gutting agency, per new book

Marisa Kabas
April 13, 2026

One of the first acts by the second Trump administration was the complete gutting of the US Agency for International Development, a workforce of more than 10,000 people that had administered humanitarian aid and public health support to nations around the world since 1961. Thousands of jobs were immediately slashed by Elon Musk’s para-governmental Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and political appointees took over posts previously held by career civil servants. An agency once charged with fighting poverty, curbing the spread of infectious diseases, and promoting education and democracy abroad had been effectively thrown in the woodchipper.

Continued: https://www.thehandbasket.co/p/trump-usaid-abortions-barney-nicholas-enrich-into-the-wood-chipper-book-exclusive

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)

Latest US Restrictions on Aid ‘Bully’ Recipients to Accept ‘Extremist Ideology’

29/01/2026
Kerry Cullinan

Global health organisations have reacted with anger to the new US foreign aid policy, which prohibits all aid recipients, bar military, from performing or promoting abortion, “gender ideology”, or “diversity, equity and inclusion” (DEI).

“Catastrophic”, “bullying”, “draconian” and “ideologically driven” – are some of their reactions to the Promoting Human Flourishing in Foreign Assistance (PHFFA) policy, announced by US Vice-President JD Vance at an anti-abortion event last Friday evening.

Continued; https://healthpolicy-watch.news/latest-us-restrictions-on-aid-bully-recipients-to-accept-extremist-ideology/

A stock of U.S.-bought birth control, meant for sub-Saharan Africa, goes bad in Belgium

NPR, By Rachel Treisman
Published November 15, 2025

There's a new twist in the saga of the U.S.-purchased contraceptives intended for sub-Saharan Africa and stuck in Belgium since the Trump administration scaled back foreign aid earlier this year.

This week, questions were raised about whether the stockpile, originally valued at $9.7 million, might be bigger than previously thought. And an official on the ground said some of those products have gone bad.

Authorities in the Flanders region of Belgium confirmed that in addition to the four truckloads' worth of unexpired birth control sitting in a warehouse in the city of Geel, another 20 truckloads of supplies ended up in the village of Kallo but were stored improperly and are therefore unusable — at least as contraceptives.

Continued; https://www.publicradiotulsa.org/npr-national-news/2025-11-15/a-stock-of-u-s-bought-birth-control-meant-for-sub-saharan-africa-goes-bad-in-belgium

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/

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

Global voices on ending USAID, part 2

On 1 July 2025, USAID is officially to be dismantled. Since President Donald Trump froze the funds of the US development agency at the beginning of the year, we have been receiving messages from various parts of the world. The senders want to describe the situation in their countries, discuss the way forward – or simply express their shock. We want to offer the various voices a platform to summarise their thoughts in short statements. This is the second of two parts of their statements.

by D+C / E+Z
May 7, 2025

The end of USAID has had a profound impact on the reproductive health of women in Africa and Asia. In total, MSI Reproductive Choices has lost $ 14 million in funding because it refused to comply with the rules and regulations of the Trump administration. This funding must now be replaced by other funds, as must a further $ 6 million for services previously provided by UN organisations, state health systems and other organisations. One of the countries most affected by the cuts is Zimbabwe, where a combined $ 6.5 million in USAID funding has been cancelled. Only by filling these service gaps in a timely manner can a significant increase in unintended pregnancies, unsafe abortions, and pregnancy-related deaths be avoided.

Across Africa, where I lead MSI’s work expanding access to lifesaving sexual and reproductive healthcare, the USAID cuts led by the world’s richest man are devastating for women living in the poorest communities of the continent. Denied this lifeline, women will no longer be able to safely space their pregnancies, pushing them further into the cycle of poverty, while those in the most desperate circumstances will be left with no option but to risk their lives by resorting to unsafe abortion.

Continued: https://www.dandc.eu/en/article/president-donald-trump-froze-funds-us-development-agency-beginning-year-we-have-been-0