A woman walks past a billboard promoting the Safe Motherhood Bill on Wilkinson Road in Freetown, Sierra Leone, March 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Caitlin Kelly, File)The son of Mary Olouch, who died at 25 after a botched abortion procedure, holds a photo of her in her home in Karabok, Kenya, July 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Annie Risemberg)Community health worker Loice Ochieng stands over the grave of Mary Olouch, who died at 25 after a botched abortion procedure done without the help of healthcare professionals, in Karabok, Kenya, July 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Annie Risemberg)Anti-abortion activists rally outside of the U.S. Supreme Court during the March for Life in Washington, Jan. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)Hannah Ruguru, a health worker at Marie Stopes clinic, sits in a consultation room in Kisumu, Kenya, July 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Annie Risemberg)A woman walks past a billboard promoting the Safe Motherhood Bill on Wilkinson Road in Freetown, Sierra Leone, March 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Caitlin Kelly, File)A woman walks past a billboard promoting the Safe Motherhood Bill on Wilkinson Road in Freetown, Sierra Leone, March 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Caitlin Kelly, File)The son of Mary Olouch, who died at 25 after a botched abortion procedure, holds a photo of her in her home in Karabok, Kenya, July 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Annie Risemberg)The son of Mary Olouch, who died at 25 after a botched abortion procedure, holds a photo of her in her home in Karabok, Kenya, July 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Annie Risemberg)Community health worker Loice Ochieng stands over the grave of Mary Olouch, who died at 25 after a botched abortion procedure done without the help of healthcare professionals, in Karabok, Kenya, July 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Annie Risemberg)Community health worker Loice Ochieng stands over the grave of Mary Olouch, who died at 25 after a botched abortion procedure done without the help of healthcare professionals, in Karabok, Kenya, July 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Annie Risemberg)Anti-abortion activists rally outside of the U.S. Supreme Court during the March for Life in Washington, Jan. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)Anti-abortion activists rally outside of the U.S. Supreme Court during the March for Life in Washington, Jan. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)Hannah Ruguru, a health worker at Marie Stopes clinic, sits in a consultation room in Kisumu, Kenya, July 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Annie Risemberg)Hannah Ruguru, a health worker at Marie Stopes clinic, sits in a consultation room in Kisumu, Kenya, July 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Annie Risemberg)KISUMU, Kenya (AP) — For decades, U.S. anti-abortion groups have lobbied domestically and abroad for restricting access to abortion. In the U.S., their biggest success was the reversal of Roe v. Wade. Now, the Trump administration is delivering new momentum to the movement exporting “family values” to nations overseas.At anti-abortion activists’ annual March for Life demonstration in Washington, Vice President JD Vance announced sweeping new restrictions on U.S. funding for nongovernmental organizations, foreign governments and U.N. agencies that promote access to abortion, gender-affirming care and diversity initiatives overseas.“We’re going to start blocking every international NGO that performs or promotes abortion abroad from receiving a dollar of U.S. money,” Vance told the crowd in January.The expanded restrictions build on the anti-abortion advocacy work carried out by conservative U.S. nonprofits abroad — especially in Africa, where healthcare is highly dependent on foreign aid. The region has the world’s highest estimated proportion of unsafe abortions and highest maternal mortality rates — including the highest number of maternal deaths per 100,000 abortions.This is part of a series on maternal mortality in sub-Saharan Africa, which has the world’s fastest-growing population and accounts for 70% of global maternal deaths. Around 180,000 pregnancy deaths are recorded every year across the continent.The new rules represent a radical expansion of earlier U.S. policy that cut assistance to overseas groups providing abortion-related services. Experts say at least $30 billion in U.S. aid could be affected, reshaping health policies worldwide.Anti-abortion activists rally outside of the U.S. Supreme Court during the March for Life in Washington, Jan. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)Anti-abortion activists rally outside of the U.S. Supreme Court during the March for Life in Washington, Jan. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)“We’re seeing opportunity here to have a consistently pro-life ethic,” Nicole Hunt of Colorado-based Focus on the Family, a conservative Christian evangelical group, told The Associated Press. “We’ve been influencing health policies for a long time with our foreign aid. This is just a new direction.”In the crosshairs is an international convention signed by African countries two decades ago declaring safe abortion a human right. Known as the Maputo Protocol, it obliges signatory nations to legalize abortion in cases of rape, incest, fetal malformation or risk to a woman’s health. But implementation has been spotty, forcing women to seek illicit procedures. Every year, sub-Saharan Africa records over 6 million unsafe abortions, according to the African Institute for Development Policy.
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