The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has previously endured budget cuts, but the effects of President Donald Trump’s policies have been even more “devastating” for reproductive health globally, chief Natalia Kanem told AFP.
The agency has been a target for US conservatives since the enactment of the Kemp-Kasten Amendment by Congress in 1985, when the administration of then-President Ronald Reagan opposed China’s population policies, accusing Beijing of promoting forced abortions and sterilizations.
All subsequent Republican presidencies have reduced US funding to UNFPA, and the second Trump administration is no exception.
“We’ve had over $330 million worth of projects ended,” virtually overnight, in “some of the hardest hit regions of the world” like Afghanistan, Kanem said in an interview coinciding with the release of the UNFPA’s annual report on Tuesday.
“So yes, we are suffering.”
Kanem cited the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan as an example, where over the years more than 18,000 pregnancies were delivered by “heroic midwives” who “conducted these over 18,000 deliveries without a single maternal death, which you know, in a crisis situation is extraordinary.”
“Those maternity wards today have closed. The funding cuts immediately have meant that those midwives are no longer able to do their jobs,” Kanem explained.
While it is too early to precisely quantify the impacts of the US cuts, Kanem stated they will inevitably lead to increased maternal mortality and a rise in unintended pregnancies.
“What’s different this time for UNFPA is that our ecosystem of other reproductive health actors who might be able to fill in for us,” Kanem said, adding that they are “reeling from huge impact of having their funding denied.”
The Trump administration has significantly cut many such external aid programs.
“So it is very lamentable that this year, to me, has been drastically worse than ever before, precisely because now everybody is caught up in the whirlwind.”
“The withdrawal of the United States from the funding arena for reproductive health has been devastating,” Kanem emphasized.
Desire and Rights
American policy is characterized not only by funding cuts but also by a challenge to gender equality issues.
“There will be debates about concepts, but there shouldn’t be any debate about the non-negotiability of the rights and choices of women and adolescent girls,” Kanem stressed.
She continued, “We always embrace change, but we should not compromise on these common values which spell the difference between life and death for women and girls all around the world.”
“Women deserve support. Adolescent girls deserve to finish their schooling, not become pregnant, not be bartered or sent off into marriage as a non-solution to issues that families may face.”
The UNFPA’s annual report, published on Tuesday and based on a survey of 14,000 people from 14 countries—nations representing over a third of the world’s population—also highlights concerns that millions globally cannot form the families they desire.
More than 40% of those over the age of 50 reported not having their desired number of children—with 31% saying they had fewer kids than they wanted and 12% saying they had more than they desired.
Over half of respondents indicated that economic barriers prevented them from having more children.
Conversely, one in five reported being pressured into having a child, and one in three adults reported an unintended pregnancy.
The majority of people “live in countries where fertility rates have fallen so far and so fast that they are below replacement,” Kanem observed.
“We know that the issue of population pressure takes almost like a headline drastic view. Some people think there are way too many people. Others are saying we don’t have enough, women should have more babies,” Kanem said.
Kanem concluded, “What UNFPA really cares about is a woman’s true desire, rights and choices.”
