Additional Context: This story was shared by a young woman living with HIV and serving as a mental health project research coordinator in Tanzania: “It was the first of March [when] someone [had an] abortion because of those rumors. They said, ‘I don’t want to get a baby [who is] HIV positive, I’ll be blamed myself.’ She had an abortion, and I realized when she had already done it. And then [beginning in] March, we start[ed] hearing about the good news [of limited ART availability] …and she said, ‘No, I will not take any more pregnancy.’ She now lives alone and doesn’t want any partners.”

This information was first published in an August 2025 research brief by Physicians for Human Rights entitled "On the Brink of Catastrophe: U.S. Foreign Aid Disruption to HIV Services in Tanzania and Uganda.” This research brief draws on 29 oral history interviews, including five focus groups, with doctors, nurses, peer counselors, people living with HIV, key population members, and non-governmental organization staff conducted in Tanzania and Uganda in April 2025. To document the impacts of the U.S. foreign aid freeze and HIV funding cuts, the multidisciplinary study team used purposive and snowball sampling in Moshi and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Fort Portal, Kampala, Kasese, and Tororo, Uganda. Participants had explicit control over how personal information was shared, with consent and demographic forms tailored to individual preferences. 

Source: Physicians for Human Rights (PHR)