‘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

America’s abortion wars: inside the clinic on the front line

Since the overturning of Roe v Wade in 2022, abortion is illegal in 13 US states. New Mexico has become the nearest place for many women to terminate a pregnancy — if they can get past the religious activists on a mission to change their minds

George Grylls
Friday January 16 2026

Haley Nathan, 19, writes down the details of women’s cars on a clipboard outside an abortion clinic in New Mexico, braced for the day ahead. New Mexico is the closest option for any Texan woman to receive an abortion since the overturning of Roe v Wade in June 2022.

She’s frequently yelled at, or shown the middle finger. “I try not to let it bother me because it’s gonna affect my performance on the sidewalk,” says Nathan, a young intern, fixated on the clinic’s door as she prepares herself for the hostility coming her way. “I like to say it’s not me who’s doing the work. It’s God in me. I step out, God steps in.”

Continued: https://archive.is/6FX9Y
(https://www.thetimes.com/us/news-today/article/abortion-roe-v-wade-h2j7j9lm9)

USA – A Pregnant Woman at Risk of Heart Failure Couldn’t Get Urgent Treatment. She Died Waiting for an Abortion.

In North Carolina, a state that had legislated its commitment to life, Ciji Graham spent her final days struggling to find anyone to save hers.

by Lizzie Presser and Kavitha Surana
January 14, 2026

When Ciji Graham visited a cardiologist on Nov. 14, 2023, her heart was pounding at 192 beats per minute, a rate healthy people her age usually reach during the peak of a sprint. She was having another episode of atrial fibrillation, a rapid, irregular heartbeat. The 34-year-old Greensboro, North Carolina, police officer was at risk of a stroke or heart failure.

In the past, doctors had always been able to shock Graham’s heart back into rhythm with a procedure called a cardioversion. But this time, the treatment was just out of reach. After a pregnancy test came back positive, the cardiologist didn’t offer to shock her. Graham texted her friend from the appointment: “Said she can’t cardiovert being pregnant.”

Continued: https://www.propublica.org/article/north-carolina-abortion-laws-ciji-graham

Colombia – ‘It’s not the 90s any more’: the all-women team reinventing abortion advice for the TikTok age

The irreverent approach of the Colombian hotline Jacarandas has made it the most-followed abortion account on social media in the Spanish-speaking world

Isabel Choat
Tue 13 Jan 2026

What do a purple cartoon cat and abortion have in common? Nothing – and that is the point, say the women behind Jacarandas, a Colombian abortion helpline. Determined to set themselves apart from more traditional reproductive health organisations, Jacarandas commissions street and graphic artists to create eye-catching illustrations – most recently a cartoon feline called Gataranda, inspired by the team’s much-loved office pet.

The aim is not to make light of abortion but to appeal to the teenagers and young women who use Jacarandas’ services. “A lot of people do not connect with [an image of] the uterus on fire, so we thought ‘what can we do to connect more with young women?” says Carolina Benítez Mendoza, the deputy director.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/jan/13/its-not-the-90s-any-more-the-all-women-team-reinventing-abortion-advice-for-the-tiktok-age

In Post-Roe America, Abortion Care Is Being Reborn From the Ground Up

A British doctor finds fear and legal chaos being transformed into a new, decentralized model of reproductive freedom

Sabrina Das
Jan 13, 2026

Along the broad, ceremonial expanse of Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., its lanes framed by rows of evenly spaced trees, Amy Allina paused to remember how her career began. Years before she established herself as a consultant for reproductive rights nonprofits, she learned how to perform abortions with nothing more than a length of plastic tubing and a mason jar.

It was the early 1990s. She was part of a loose network of feminist health collectives — women who believed, with a conviction that feels almost radical now, that information belonged to everyone, especially when it concerned their bodies. A mentor taught her “menstrual extraction,” a low-tech method capable of removing the contents of the uterus in very early pregnancy. The procedure was performed in living rooms and kitchens, surrounded by friends. There were no machines, no metal instruments, no men in white coats.

Continued: https://newlinesmag.com/reportage/in-post-roe-america-abortion-care-is-being-reborn-from-the-ground-up/

13.01.2026

crisis pregnancy centers

Dr. Victoria Williams

self-managed abortion

Self-Managed Abortion; Safe and Supported project

shield laws

Spiritual Alliance of Communities for Reproductive Dignity

telemedicine abortion

Study: FDA Regulation of Abortion Drug Mifepristone from 2011 to 2023 Shaped by Evidence and Caution

Researchers reviewed hundreds of internal FDA documents obtained under FOIA

12-Jan-2026
by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

An analysis of internal Food and Drug Administration documents by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health finds that the agency generally followed cautious and evidence-based recommendations from staff scientists regulating the abortion drug mifepristone over a critical 12-year period.

The findings were published online January 12 in JAMA.

Continued: https://www.newswise.com/articles/study-fda-regulation-of-abortion-drug-mifepristone-from-2011-to-2023-shaped-by-evidence-and-caution/?ad2f=1&aid=841596

12.01.2026

Research

abortion pills are safe

Anna Levashkevich

Food and Drug Administration

G. Caleb Alexander

Joanne Rosen

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Bristol abortion clinic praised for outstanding service

Staff there are caring, safe and empathetic, a new report says
Angus McIntyre

08 Jan 2026

An abortion clinic in Bristol has been rated 'outstanding' by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the highest rating available.

The CQC ranked the MSI Reproductive Services Treatment Centre in Stoke Gifford outstanding overall and in three of five individually-assessed fields: safety, effectiveness and care. The clinic, which services patients across the South West, was rated 'good' in the responsiveness and leadership categories.

Continued; https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/bristol-abortion-clinic-praised-outstanding-10741707

08.01.2026

News

British Pregnancy Advisory Service

Care Quality Commission

Debi Hammond

Emma May

MSI Reproductive Choices

Ghana – Sexual reproductive health rights project impacts 200,000 people in two regions

7 January 2026

Over 200,000 people, including young people under 20 years from 11 districts in the Northern and Upper East Regions, have been impacted by a project that seeks to empower adolescents and young people to access accurate information on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR).

Implemented by MSI Reproductive Choices Ghana (MSIG) and Youth Advocates Ghana (YAG) with funding from the European Union and support from the Ghana Health Service (GES) and the Ghana Education Service, the three-year project dubbed, Youth For Health, revamped and equipped 26 adolescent corners in the implementing districts.

Continued: https://www.myjoyonline.com/sexual-reproductive-health-rights-project-impacts-200000-people-in-two-regions/

07.01.2026

Ghana Education Service

Ghana Health Service

MSI Reproductive Choices Ghana

Theresa Oppong Mensah

Youth Advocates Ghana

UK – ‘Women have to fight for what they want’: UK campaigner’s 60-year unfinished battle for abortion rights

Diane Munday helped secure legal terminations in 1967 and, aged 94, is still calling for wider reproductive rights

Hannah Al-Othman
5 Jan 2026

When the 1967 Abortion Act cleared parliament, marking one of the most significant steps forward for women’s rights in history, Diane Munday was among the campaigners raising a glass of champagne on the terrace of the House of Commons.

“I’m only drinking a half a glass,” she told her colleagues at the time, “because the job is only half done.”

And, she was right. “Fifty years later, women were still going to prison,” says Munday, who co-founded the British Pregnancy Advice Service. She was also a leading member of the Abortion Law Reform Association during the 1960s and 1970s and is a patron of Humanists UK.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/05/uk-campaigner-diane-munday-unfinished-battle-abortion-rights

India – Two arrested over illegal abortion after foetus found in Marsabit village

“Our officers acted swiftly to establish the circumstances under which the foetus was abandoned."

by FELIX KIPKEMOI
04 January 2026

Police in Marsabit have arrested two people in connection with an alleged illegal abortion after the body of a foetus was discovered in Malkalakore village, Drib-Gombo location.

The incident has shocked residents and raised fresh concerns about unsafe medical practices in remote areas.

Continued: https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2026-01-04-two-arrested-in-marsabit-over-illegal-abortion

04.01.2026