Trump’s Return to Power Has Triggered a Global Reproductive Health Crisis

Ten million dollars’ worth of birth control is sitting in a warehouse, slated to be burned by the U.S. government that paid for it. This is not a bureaucratic error. It is a symbol of how, one year into President Trump’s return to power, reproductive freedom has been deliberately stripped from U.S. foreign policy. 

REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS IN THE IDEOLOGICAL CROSSHAIRS 

Attacks on global sexual and reproductive health and rights are central to the Trump administration’s agenda. Advocates warned that the second Trump term would endanger international family planning, but even those predictions underestimated the scale.  

From day one, the administration targeted international family planning. Less than a week after inauguration, it abruptly halted all foreign assistance for “review,” and barred family planning programs from qualifying for waivers during the pause. This decision was not grounded in evidence. Every two minutes, a woman dies from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth, with 94 percent of those deaths occurring in low-income countries. Access to contraception reduces maternal mortality, prevents unsafe abortions, and strengthens economic resilience.  

A DELIBERATE DISMANTLING OF GLOBAL HEALTH INFRASTRUCTURE 

When the administration eliminated an estimated 86 percent of foreign aid programs administered through USAID, and terminated thousands of jobs, the damage was immediate: Clinics closed. Supply chains fractured. Trust evaporated. It used disinformation and sensational claims to justify defunding lifesaving work.  

Just one year later, epidemiologists estimate that 600,000 people have died as a result of USAID’s dismantling, thousands of those deaths a result of a lack of access to reproductive care.  

WEAPONIZING FOREIGN AID  

But it doesn’t stop there. The U.S. is weakening health systems and undermining international human rights norms by engaging in the Geneva Consensus Declaration, an anti-rights political statement that masquerades as pro-family while undermining international human rights norms. The administration imposed the Global Gag Rule, a harmful policy that bars foreign organizations receiving U.S. global health assistance from providing, referring for, or even discussing abortion with their own funds. The Global Gag Rule increases maternal mortality and abortion rates.  

And now, the administration is pulling straight from the Project 2025 playbook, with plans for an even more expansive Global Gag Rule, and to recast global health cooperation and global health agreements through a transactional “America First” lens. The goal is to advance a pro-natalist ideology that treats women as vessels for reproduction and restricts free speech and dissent. The result is a foreign policy that normalizes reproductive coercion, undermines access to contraception and accurate health information, and reverses decades of progress. 

Over the past year, the world has lost lives, funding, and technical expertise. We’ve also lost predictability, partnership, and the recognition that reproductive freedom is foundational to sustainable development. Societies cannot thrive when women lack control over their bodies, their health, and their futures. 

ABANDONING OUR GLOBAL LEADERSHIP 

The administration’s retreat from multilateralism has only deepened the harm. Long-standing U.S. commitments have been abandoned, creating a vacuum eagerly watched by geopolitical competitors. The administration cut off funding for UNFPA, the UN sexual and reproductive health agency, jeopardizing maternal health care in crisis settings, and efforts to end female genital-mutilation and cutting (FGM/C) and child marriage, and gender-based violence.  

FREEDOM STARTS BY DEFENDING OUR RIGHTS 

Congress has played a mixed role. Lawmakers voted to allow the administration to claw back $9 billion in already approved funding, including cuts to international family planning,  underscoring a growing constitutional crisis in which the executive branch openly defies legislative authority over foreign aid. At the same time, members of Congress pushed back: introducing bills reaffirming that reproductive rights are human rights, to protect U.S. funding for UNFPA, to save lives and taxpayer dollars, and to press administration officials through hearings, sent letters and held briefings. 

The call to action is clear. Americans still have powerful tools: congressional oversight, legal accountability, and sustained public pressure. U.S. leadership in defending reproductive freedom globally has never been charity: it is a pillar of stable, healthy and prosperous societies.  What happens to women abroad reverberates at home. 

Several bills now before Congress offer concrete opportunities to mitigate the harm. The Saving Lives and Taxpayer Dollars Act would prevent any administration from destroying usable, taxpayer-funded commodities like birth control. The Global HER Act would legislatively repeal the Global Gag Rule, and the Reproductive Rights are Human Rights Act would require the State Department to report on all forms of reproductive coercion. Americans have an opportunity to act by staying engaged, supporting congressional action, and standing up for reproductive freedom as a pillar of U.S. leadership abroad. 

Becoming informed, speaking out, and showing solidarity is more important now than ever. The question is whether the United States will continue down a path of ideological retrenchment—or reclaim its role as a defender of autonomy, dignity, and global health leadership. Freedom begins with action, and the responsibility to defend reproductive rights belongs to all of us.