“We are fighting political and cultural wars. Wars that are not ours.”

Soita Khatondi Wepukhulu
6 May 2026

On an early morning in February, 23-year-old Suzan Akello was found lying dead on a veranda outside a house she had visited in Namataala, Mbale town, in eastern Uganda. Friends said she could not afford a clinic and had taken herbal medicine to terminate a pregnancy. By the time Akello needed urgent care, it was too late.

Post-abortion care services (PAC) are legal in Uganda, secured through years of advocacy and government-NGO collaboration, some under US-supported programmes. But health workers, activists, and patients told The New Humanitarian that in recent months, post-abortion care and critical HIV/AIDS services are increasingly caught in the fallout of a new $2.3 billion health agreement between Uganda and the United States, one that is integrating donor-funded programmes into Uganda’s public health system while reducing reliance on NGOs.

Continued: https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news-feature/2026/05/06/frontline-costs-uganda-new-us-health-agreement