Reproductive health in developing countries in ‘chaos’ after Trump aid freeze

[IwantToRetire]

Donald Trump’s 90-day freeze on foreign aid has caused “absolute chaos” on the ground in developing countries, with vital reproductive health services being forced to halt treatment, charities have warned.

Immediately after his inauguration in January, US President Donald Trump announced an immediate 90-day freeze on all USAID including family planning, which, amounts annually to over $600 million, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a leading reproductive health policy organisation.

That will mean an estimated 11.7 million women and girls losing access to contraception, resulting in 4.2 million unintended pregnancies and, 8,340 maternal deaths, as well as a surge in unsafe abortions, according to Marie Stopes International, a non-governmental organisation providing contraception and safe abortion services in 37 countries around the world.

Speaking during a panel event at the London premiere of The A-Word, The Independent’s documentary about reproductive rights in America, Sarah Shaw, MSI associate director of advocacy, said in some developing countries USAID funding accounts for almost 70 per cent of the health budget.

“For us, [the freeze] means losing $14 million in funding… it’s absolute chaos,” Ms Shaw told the audience at the Frontline Club in London, which included NHS doctors, healthcare providers, researchers in reproductive rights, advocates, and journalists.

“The thing about the stop-work order – definitely for our teams in Zimbabwe – is that they literally have to stop. That’s it. We are done. They haven’t even been able to warn the communities that they’re working with that the mobile teams are not going to come out next time,” she said.

“Because no one is providing services now, entire health systems have just ground to a halt.”

Article continues at https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/trump-usaid-abortion-contraception-b2706614.html

So irresponsible.

I don't argue with the aim of making sure that aid is directed at worthwhile projects and money is not being wasted or used for improper purposes, but they are throwing the baby out with the bathwater and landing some honest people with financial liabilities which they only took on because they had been promised support. People in poor countries are losing their livelihood.

I can't believe DOGE doesn't have the resources to do the hard, boring but necessary work of examining what the projects are and weeding out the bad while letting the good flourish. Big mistake as well as an unethical way to do this. It's Trump's prerogative to cut all these projects but - except where there is clear, strong evidence of criminal activity - the very least DOGE owed these people is a transition period.

It got a lot worse this week, the Indie reporting is out of date. Over 10,000 international programmes have been terminated including those providing health care, education, water, sanitation, food and anything else you can think off. Only a tiny number remain in place. It's off the scale destruction of international aid. I know because I work(ed) on one of them and we have been cancelled.

Time to be honest, aid is not altruistic. It's soft power but also it keeps people in their place. Imagine if you have no food or water... will you stay where you are and die or will you move to somewhere you think you might be able to access it/appeal for it? So watch out for the famines and mass movements seen on TV in the 80's.

Further, much aid props up markets in high income countries. Much of the grain suppliesd by USAID comes from the USA, from farmers paid to grow it. They are not planting because their contracts have been cancelled. So, there will be less food even when people do move to find it.

Maybe it would be OK if the rest of the world stepped up to fill the funding gap? Well, the UK just announced aid cuts, as did the Netherlands and probably more will follow to appease the "charity starts at home" lot. Ridiculously aid is another side of the defence coin, less defence is needed if people have the basics to live and don't go to war for them. So it makes no sense to rob one to pay for the other.

But countries are secretly rich and have no need for aid! Sure, some have very unequal distribution of finances and could be doing more. A lot of "aid" is actually tied to government reform and better management though with the intention of incremental improvements and standard setting. Still, some countries could do more, but it takes time to set up these programmes, train staff, buy grain, build health care centres etc. Stopping overnight is wilful destruction. There is no way to pick up the pieces. Trump and Musk have signed the death warrants of more people than any modern war would result in.

I'm quite angry. And helpless. There is some push back in the USA but how to fight crazy when they either own or ignore the judiciary?

I'm amazed at how much the USA has been funding for all these years, no wonder the country's in debt.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/die-hammer-drops-usaid-organizations-left-reeling/story?id=119282429

For the last month the big NGOs have been quiet as they hoped keeping their heads down and not poking the bear would mean sense would be seen and we'd be back up after the spurious "review". They were very wrong.

In that case @TheywontletmehavethenameIwant have a read of this: https://theconversation.com/as-trump-tries-to-slash-us-foreign-aid-here-are-3-common-myths-many-americans-mistakenly-believe-about-it-248979

Aid is not the reason for debt. And again, aid keeps people where they are, it prevents wars and props up markets in rich countries.

Just one thing to add, I believe this is a feminist issue for two reasons. The first is that women and children are disproportionately affected by what's happening and by extreme poverty in general. Secondly the cuts are due to fellas who are so desperate to show how alpha they are that they are flying in their very own master misogynists (Tates).

Oh and to correct myself in my earlier post, almost 10,000 programmes, not quite over.

For me it is that as always women are the first ones to suffer.

And as PP have commented, there may well be ways to make sure money is used more effectively, but to just do this blanket cutting of aid is disgusting.

They could well have said that as from 31 March 2025 we will be cutting all, or a % of funding.

I can not believe that human beings can behave like this.

Are they really just thick, or just heartless.

Or is that that this men who are getting promoted to the top and really those with an empathy by pass, and whose only aspiration is to be top dog.

And who gets hurt on the way to them getting there are just inconsequential.

USAID stands for US Agency for International Development and that sounds different to me than providing foreign aid or charity. Taxpayers of any country have every right to prioritize where their money is going. Americans need to get their financial house in order. $600 million would go a long way to help those who lost everything in North Carolina floods. There will be many more worthy causes than the money to fund them.

NGOs have become too reliant on government largesse instead of donations from individuals. They have become part of "the swamp". Calling it heartless, disgusting and lacking in empathy is just emotional manipulation without actually addressing the hard choices that have to be made.

On no, not that our people's suffering is more important.

Fancy falling for that con trick that tells people they are poor and suffering because other people, you know the foreign ones who shouldn't be respected have "stolen" your money.

Just like the sort of rubbish that Farage spouts.

Anyone who believes that sort of arguement is the useful idiot to the people who are siphoning of the money for them and people like them ie the rich, and the exploiters.

Instead of saying really poor people should lose support why not for once have the gumption to stand up to those who are profiteering of your obsequious failure to stand up to those who are milking the system.

It always amazes me that in the UK those who drone on for hours about what it means to be truely British then demonstrate that their appears to be a forelock tugging serf who never for one moments questions whether the people in the big house are living the rich life through exploiting them.

Strange to see this tradition being carried on in the US.

These are entirely different buckets of funding. USAID would have used a different siphon to anything acute and local.

Wealth Distribution.

There. Solved it for you.
Not a hard choice at all. But not at all what those hideous men are interested in doing.

Thanks for posting @IwantToRetire and @DogDaysNeverEnd – although it's too depressing for me to even know what to say.

This will impact people I know. I can do some mitigation of the impacts on people close to me (because they have foreign friends like me, ie "wealthy" by the time money has gone through currency exchange ), but the people at a further remove I won't be able to help much.

Also healthcare, general and reproductive, is one of those things where the lack has huge ripple effects.

I'm sorry. I don't understand the point you are making and how it relates to what I said. Could you be more specific? Who is siphoning money for whom? Who do you think is profiteering? Who are the people in the big house? I don't understand the reference to the UK. Do you think your argument would convince the average American taxpayer?

What do you mean by wealth distribution?

I don’t think that the poster necessarily meant they’re siphoning it - that’s a pretty emotive thing to say and just tries to make anyone with a different opinion look like a mean racist. That’s not fair nor a positive way to debate.

I absolutely despise trump so I’ll start with that. But if you want to think about how people feel and WHY they’re (ordinary people including women not just Tate types) voting for him, you need listen to their fears and pain points without judgement.

Im also going to state that I believe in a free world and borders etc seem so unnatural to me, But as we DO have borders and countries, with governments we vote into look after us in our country, obviously people are not going to be happy about having shit medical care, shit living, crap education etc but money going to these things in other countries.

it really is the put your own mask on first - if the country didn’t have problems left, right and centre, people dying in poverty on the streets, people paying hundreds of dollars just to cover basic medicine, then absolutely everyone (except the ACTUAL racists) would be happy to give money to overseas projects.

what trump is doing is awful, and pulling support with no warning and no replacement in place is disgusting. And I don’t believe he is doing it for the benefit of American people because he’s got Elon in there firing them all so they’re jobless left right and centre. But as long as he is addressing people’s pain points, he’s going to keep receiving support.

calling people names and refusing to hear them doesn’t do anything but drive hatred and division up though.

I agree, clearly and simply put, the UK is also on the bones of it's arse, all our credited cards are maxed out and the bailiffs are at the door. Foreign aid is a self-indulgent luxury we can no longer afford. We have to start living within our means or we'll be the country that needs handouts, and China doesn't do Aid.

I get what you're saying regarding looking after your own first (brilliant take down of Vance and "Christian values" by Rory Stewart if you're interested in a religious counter arguement) but aid really is that ultimately. We all benefit by the poorest people being supported, because the alternative is mass migration, famines and wars.

For example, whilst it seems counter intuitive to say health care in remote DRC will benefit people in the UK, it really will. There's a haemorrhagic fever similar to Ebola kicking off there at the moment. Without funded health care it could spread, it could (and this is a very small possibility, I'm not scaremongering) go global. Trump has stopped funding the WHO and health care programmes, so what's to stop this disease?

Society is very different from a company, which Musk is willfully ignoring. We don't have a single issue/product to flog, it's complicated and chaotic. Maintaining a tiny proportion of GDP as aid pays dividends in the longer term. National debt interest is way higher than the international aid budget, but i must have missed the discussion on negotiating loan better rates?

Can someone kindly explain why Starmer is cutting aid and why there doesn’t appear to be any outrage? I know our contribution is tiny in comparison to USAID but still…

Some people are objecting, a minister has resigned in protest.

I think the level of outrage is likely to be less as Starmer hasn't said this will be with immediate effect. I expect projects will be swiftly closed down.....rather than having the plug pulled today.

Starmer has said that the defence of this country has to take precedence over donating money to worthy causes in other countries - and since it's UK taxpayer money I think many UK taxpayers will agree with him.

And whether you agree with Trump or not, all he and his administration are doing is asking a question that a lot of US taxpayers want answering and it's: 'Where is all this US taxpayer money going and how is it benefiting the US?'

Thank you both for replying.

Fraud and corruption are clearly issues that must be stopped wherever it is identified.
I’ve read of issues in the past where for example various regimes have skimmed off Aid and sent it to tax havens. If ‘checks and balances’ is what the US is doing then I can’t criticise them.

It's worth remembering that money is fungible, and a corrupt person can benefit greatly from aid, without actually touching the funds given by the party providing aid. So, say you are the health minister of a country in the developing world. The population of the country have some basic needs and expectations, which ought to be met by the country's health service. By skimming money out of the health budget, and putting it in your pocket, the country cannot fulfil these needs and expectations, but you can carry this out without upsetting the population too much, because an NGO, funded by an overseas country, steps in and ensures that the health needs of the population are met.

Exactly, we know this happens - in fact corruption of all kinds happens around aid donated by well-meaning developed nations. Bags stamped with USAid are regularly found for sale in markets all over the world - food that should be handed out for free - but which people are getting rich from stealing and selling.

Also, if the USA is prepared to fund healthcare in places like Zimbabwe, where is the motivation for that country's government to step up and provide it?Zimbabwe is a country that COULD be rich if its corrupt leaders didn't plunder the country's wealth and condemn its population to poverty. Where is the anger about that? Why is it all that the developed world is mean for saying 'No more!' to nations that could well afford to provide healthcare for their own people? There wouldn't need to be all these NGOs in many places if the governments of those countries were held to account for their corruption.

‘get what you're saying regarding looking after your own first (brilliant take down of Vance and "Christian values" by Rory Stewart ‘

😂😂 that would be Rory Stewart whose wife got a ton of money from USAid for teaching ‘Africans’ about modern art, including the famous urinal picture, now terminated.

Completely unbiased view there, then.

In 2021 the US foreign aid budget was about 46 billion and in 2023 it was 71.9 billion mainly due to the war in Ukraine (16.6 billion). Even without Ukraine it has risen by around 9 billion since 2023.

I guess there was going to be a backlash to this from the US citizens at some point and a wish for more funding for domestic projects- health care, schools and welfare.

It seems like the problem is the way that the cuts are being implemented is too fast and without much care, hopefully the most deserving projects will be protected.