The Trump administration’s recent actions to disrupt and dismantle US foreign aid and reinstate the so-called global gag rule undermine vital international health initiatives and hinder efforts to reduce poverty, improve health outcomes and expand access to reproductive health. Our experts and allies are working to help you understand the impact of these actions and to share what we’re doing to mitigate their effects on global health and development.
The 90-day pause on foreign aid has already disrupted global programmes aimed at reducing poverty, strengthening health systems and expanding access to essential reproductive health services.
For each day that US-funded international family planning programmes are forced to stop work, 130,390 women are denied contraceptive care. If the freeze lasts 90 days, 11.7 million women and girls will be denied this care. This could result in an estimated 4.2 million unintended pregnancies and 8,340 maternal deaths.
These numbers highlight the real and urgent harm caused by this unprecedented attack on foreign aid—harm that will continue to escalate the longer the aid suspension remains in place.
The Guttmacher Institute urges the US Congress to address the unprecedented attacks on our country’s foreign aid apparatus… and defend international family planning programmes in that process. We applaud the reintroduction of the Global Health, Empowerment and Rights (Global HER) Act, which would permanently repeal the global gag rule, as it represents a strong show of support for the lifesaving nature of international family planning.
SOURCE: Guttmacher Institute, E-mail: 5 February 2025. Web version.