GENEVA: A UN aid official said on Tuesday that a US 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.
US 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 US largesse.
Trump has also restored US participation in international anti-abortion pacts, cutting off US 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.”
