Donald Trump Defunds Global Maternal Health Organization

Last year the funding helped prevent an estimated 10,000 maternal deaths and 100,000 unsafe abortions.



By Laura Bassett



NEW YORK ― Days after Melania Trump presented courage awards to 13 women working for gender equity around the globe, President Donald Trump’s administration halted all U.S. grants to the United Nations Population Fund, an international humanitarian aid organization that provides reproductive health care and works to end child marriage and female genital cutting in more than 150 countries.


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Trump’s move will pull $76 million from the UNFPA ― about 7 percent of its budget. In 2016, the funding provided access to contraceptives to 800,000 people around the world and prevented an estimated 100,000 unsafe abortions and 10,000 maternal deaths, according to the organization. At the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan, for instance, UNFPA-supported health providers have managed to deliver more than 7,000 babies without a single maternal death.

"If our problem is with the Chinese government’s policies, why are we taking it out on an organization providing basic reproductive health care in 149 other countries? How is that helping anyone?” said Brian Dixon, a spokesperson for the Population Connection Action Fund. “It’s not doing anything to punish the Chinese government, but it’s hurting women and families around the world.”

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“Advocates from around the world will not stand idly by as Trump and his administration attempt to reverse decades of progress in reproductive health and rights,” said Serra Sippel, president of the Center for Health and Gender Equity. “Trump’s refusal to invest in strong, healthy, and empowered women and girls will jeopardize families, dismantle communities, and will kill women.”


Read More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-defunds-un-population-fund_us_58de8cece4b0b3918c831b79?

What kind of evil person does something like this?