‘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

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

UK – How Washington Turned NHS Abortion Into A Diplomatic Human Rights Cudgel

26 NOV 2025
Impact International

The decision to classify NHS‑funded abortions as a “Human Rights” violation marks a dramatic shift in how Washington uses its flagship Human Rights reporting to judge allied domestic healthcare systems. Through the annual country report, the US now treats “state‑sponsored” abortion, including routine NHS care in England and Wales, as a breach on par with other alleged abuses, transforming a settled area of UK health Policy into evidence of government wrongdoing. At the heart of this move is an attempt to recast abortion, along with other social questions, as a core Human Rights battleground rather than a matter of domestic legislative compromise.

Continued: https://impactpolicies.org/news/676/how-washington-turned-nhs-abortion-into-a-diplomatic-human-rights-cudgel

26.11.2025

Commentary

Abortion Act 1967

Adam Smith‑Connor

anti-choice protesters

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

Mobile Clinics Close in Madagascar as Aid Cuts Reduce Reproductive Health Services

Cuts to mobile clinic funding are leading to more unwanted pregnancies and unsafe births.

By Sarah El Gharib
October 30, 2025

When her mobile clinic shut down, Herisoa Bodo’s phone wouldn’t stop ringing. A client due for implant removal reached out again and again. The appointment never happened — and she became pregnant.

Bodo, a midwife with Marie Stopes International (MSI) Madagascar since 2012, kept fielding calls long after outreach teams had been forced to suspend services. “Women kept calling because they couldn’t find care,” she said. Her routes cover Analamanga, the region surrounding the capital Antananarivo, where MSI deploys buses converted into clinics and 4x4 teams into rural communities. For many women, those visits are the only reliable chance to see a midwife.

Continued: https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/madagascar-mobile-clinics-close-due-to-aid-cuts/

World Contraception Day reminds us that access to contraception is a human right

Sustainable Population Australia
26 September 2025

World Contraception Day (WCD) is a day of observation recognised by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFP). The central focus of WCD is ‘a world where every pregnancy is desired’.

Sustainable Population Australia (SPA) upholds the rights of women to control their bodies. As a result of the withdrawal of USAID, SPA calls on the Australian Government to step up and provide additional assistance for family planning in its aid budget. In Australia, women should not be denied access to contraception by health professionals.

Continued; https://newshub.medianet.com.au/2025/09/expert-alert-world-contraception-day-reminds-us-that-access-to-contraception-is-a-human-right/120426/

26.09.2025

News

Michael Bayliss

Peter Strachan

Sustainable Population Australia

USAID

World Contraception Day

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

The Trump administration’s destruction of contraceptives was both wasteful and cruel

U.S. officials had already spent nearly $10 million on contraceptives intended for low-income nations. They will never reach their intended target.

Sept. 12, 2025
By Steve Benen

Federal officials had already spent nearly $10 million on birth control pills, intrauterine devices and hormonal implants to be sent to low-income nations. As The New York Times reported, however, the products will never reach their intended destination — not because the beneficiaries no longer want the assistance, but because the Trump administration destroyed what U.S. taxpayers had already paid for.

The destruction of the millions of dollars’ worth of products itself cost roughly $167,000. The Times’ report noted that several international organizations, including the Gates Foundation and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, had offered to buy or accept a donation of the contraceptives.

Continued: https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-administrations-destruction-contraceptives-was-both-wasteful-cru-rcna230834

12.09.2025

News

Beth Schlachter

Children’s Investment Fund Foundation

Donald Trump

Gates Foundation

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/