Maternal mortality rates have declined significantly across the world since the turn of the century, but global health experts fear that progress could be rolled back as a result of the Trump administration's cuts to U.S. foreign aid.
Maternal deaths per 100,000 live births dropped by about 40 percent worldwide between 2000 and 2023, according to a recent report from the World Health Organization (WHO).
The WHO said women today are more likely to survive childbirth than ever but warned that cuts to foreign aid pose a “threat of major backsliding” in that progress.
"The report comes as humanitarian funding cuts are having severe impacts on essential health care in many parts of the world, forcing countries to roll back vital services for maternal, newborn and child health," the United Nations health agency said in a release accompanying the report.
"These cuts have led to facility closures and loss of health workers, while also disrupting supply chains for lifesaving supplies and medicines such as treatments for hemorrhage, pre-eclampsia and malaria – all leading causes of maternal deaths."
President Trump and his administration have taken a series of actions to slash foreign aid since his return to the White House in January.
On his first day back in office, Trump issued an executive order freezing all foreign aid for 90 days. Shortly thereafter, the Trump administration issued a stop-work order on foreign assistance awards and then announced the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) would be placed under review and reorganized. Senior agency officials were placed on leave and hundreds of staffers were fired.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last month that 83 percent of USAID contracts have been canceled. And the administration terminated almost all of the remaining 900 employees of the agency in late March.
USAID managed almost all of the child health and family planning work the United States government executes abroad, according to Jennifer Kates, senior vice president and director of global health and HIV policy at health policy nonprofit KFF.
The U.S. spent $500,697,000 on maternal and child health programs abroad in fiscal 2023, according to an analysis from KFF. Some countries, like Nigeria, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, received upward of $30,000,000 worth of aid for these efforts from the U.S.
The dismantling of the agency has as a result “dramatically disrupted services and the ability to implement and manage those programs,” Kates said, which will inevitably have a “significant” impact, even if that impact has yet to be seen by the global community.
Care from health professionals before, during and after childbirth can save the lives of women and newborns, according to the WHO, as can reducing the ...
