UN Warns Maternal Deaths in Afghanistan May Rise After US Funding Pause

GENEVA (Reuters) – A U.N. aid official said on Tuesday that a U.S. funding pause would cut off millions of Afghans from sexual and reproductive health services, and the continued absence of this support could cause over 1,000 maternal deaths in Afghanistan from 2025 to 2028.

U.S. President Donald Trump last month ordered a 90-day pause in foreign development assistance, pending assessment of efficiencies and consistency with his foreign policy, setting alarm bells ringing among aid groups around the world that depend on U.S. largesse.

Trump has also restored U.S. participation in international anti-abortion pacts, cutting off U.S. family planning funds for foreign organisations providing or promoting abortion.

Pio Smith, regional director for Asia and the Pacific at the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency (UNFPA), said that over 9 million people in Afghanistan would lose access to services and over 1.2 million Afghan refugees living in Pakistan due to the closure of health facilities.

Afghanistan has one of the highest death rates in the world for pregnant women, with a mother dying of preventable pregnancy complications every two hours, he said.

“What happens when our work is not funded? Women give birth alone, in unsanitary conditions…Newborns die from preventable causes,” he told a Geneva press briefing. “These are literally the world’s most vulnerable people.”

“If I just take the example of Afghanistan, between 2025 and 2028 we estimate that the absence of U.S. support will result in 1,200 additional maternal deaths and 109,000 additional unintended pregnancies,” he said.

Across the Asia-Pacific region, UNFPA receives about $77 million in U.S. funding, he added.

Riva Eskinazi, director of donor relations at the International Planned Parenthood Federation told Reuters it, too, would have to halt family planning and sexual and reproductive health services in West Africa as a result of the pause.

“We can foresee an increase in unintended pregnancies and maternal deaths. There is going to be a problem sending contraceptives to our members. It’s devastating,” she said.

IPPF, a federation of national organisations that advocates for sexual and reproductive health, calculates that it would have to forego at least $61 million in U.S. funding over four years in 13 countries, most of which are in Africa.

(Reporting by Emma Farge; Editing by Bernadette Baum)