The United States has withdrawn $377 million in funding from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the global agency responsible for reproductive and sexual health, raising concerns about severe consequences for women and girls.
UNFPA announced on Friday that the funding cuts would halt essential, life-saving services.
As of today, nearly all 48 grants provided by USAID and the U.S. State Department to UNFPA have been terminated. These grants previously funded crucial maternal healthcare, protection from gender-based violence, rape treatment, and other emergency medical services in humanitarian crises.
The funding also supported efforts to prevent maternal deaths, ensure safe childbirth, and address extreme violence against women and girls in conflict zones such as Gaza, Sudan, and Ukraine.
“This decision will have devastating impacts on women and girls, as well as the health and aid workers serving them in some of the world’s most severe humanitarian crises,” UNFPA stated.
UNFPA collaborates with 150 countries to provide comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services.
The agency’s mission includes eliminating unmet needs for family planning, preventing maternal deaths, and combating gender-based violence, child marriage, and female genital mutilation by 2030.
“These terminations include grants that had previously received humanitarian waivers due to their life-saving nature for the world’s most vulnerable women and girls,” UNFPA explained.
The affected programs span multiple countries, including Afghanistan, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Haiti, Mali, Sudan, Syria, and Ukraine. The funding cuts are part of a broader U.S. move to scale back support for humanitarian organizations since late January, leaving millions without access to critical aid and services provided by agencies such as UNFPA and UNAIDS. Previous U.S. administrations have repeatedly withdrawn funding from UNFPA, citing allegations that the agency supports coercive abortion or forced sterilization—claims that have been refuted by independent investigations, UNFPA leadership, and other U.S. administrations.
“The mandate of UNFPA is, in fact, the opposite of this allegation—to protect rights and expand choices for all,” the agency emphasised.
As a voluntary-funded organization, UNFPA depends entirely on contributions from governments, intergovernmental bodies, foundations, private donors, and individuals.
