The Trump administration's shuttering of USAID — which had injected roughly $200 million annually into Ethiopia's health care system — has left pregnant women paying out of pocket for ultrasounds, prenatal vitamins, and delivery room supplies that were once free, threatening to reverse decades of progress on maternal mortality, The Globe and Mail reports.

A new study finds that Republican presidencies are associated with a 10.5% increase in maternal deaths in countries with above-average reliance on U.S. family planning aid. According to The Guardian, over 90% of all USAID awards for reproductive health programs have been terminated since the start of 2025, deepening concerns that decades of progress are being rapidly undone.

The Guttmacher Institute warns that, on top of actions already taken to dismantle USAID and cut international family planning assistance, the sweeping new Global Gag Rule policy threatens to deepen harm to an estimated 50 million women and girls in low- and middle-income countries already denied contraceptive care.

Sierra Leone's Princess Christian Maternity Hospital is running short of basic surgical supplies, as U.S. and U.K. aid cuts threaten to reverse nearly 80% of the progress the country has made in reducing maternal mortality since 2000, according to the Daily Nation. The U.S. cuts represented a $45 million reduction in maternal, child, and adolescent health projects.

El País follows three women across three countries to show how the collapse of U.S. foreign aid has hit women and girls hardest, stripping away maternal care, family planning, and gender-based violence protections that their governments had long neglected. The piece underscores a stark milestone: 2025 marked the first year in a quarter century that child mortality rose, a trend researchers link directly to the dismantling of USAID and the elimination of 94% of U.S. funding for sexual and reproductive health.

U.S. foreign aid cuts have gutted funding for gender-based violence programs worldwide, with over $400 million in grants eliminated and more than 40% of organizations forced to scale back or shut down entirely, according to NPR.