Funding cuts are set to block more women and girls from getting lifesaving healthcare and post-rape support, researcher Dr Jonna Both told The Independent. A landmark study has found survivors of rape and incest in five African countries are being blocked from access to safe abortion, despite being entitled to it by law. Published one year to the day since Donald Trump’s election, the first-of-its kind study has mapped out how unsafe abortion is risking women’s lives in the countries, as US aid cuts worsen the crisis.
In Benin, Cameroon, Togo, Burkina Faso and Côte d’Ivoire, survivors of sexual violence have the right to safe abortion in theory. But Dutch sexual health research group Rutgers and Benin-based Centre de Recherche en Reproduction Humaine et en Démographie (CERRHUD) found laws that existed on paper were not being enforced.
SOURCE: Aid cuts are worsening Africa’s unsafe abortion crisis, researchers warn, by Rachel Schraer, Global Health Correspondent, The Independent. 5 November 2025.