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The second Trump administration has moved to eliminate programs for contraception and other family planning work abroad. Congress actually appropriated funds for this work, but the administration has not spent it. And it has shut down programs aimed at helping people choose when to have children, such as efforts to improve access to birth control and provide resources for treating sexually transmitted diseases. The issue here is not abortion. For more than 50 years, it's been illegal for foreign aid to fund abortions.
Asked at a Congressional hearing about appropriations for family planning in May 2025, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said: "There's no plan to spend that money. We're not going to be in that business globally. We're not going to do it."
Besides this public statement, the change has happened without much fanfare. But the new approach becomes clear by looking at the Trump administration's budget documents and memos that show family planning has repeatedly been targeted for cuts.
"Very disruptive, very significant"
For well over a decade, the United States has been the top contributor to international family planning and reproductive health efforts, responsible for over 40% of donor funding worldwide to the tune of over $500 million.
Indeed, family planning had been a priority since the U.S. Agency for International Development was first established in 1961.
The U.S. support has changed millions of lives. The Guttmacher Institute — a nonprofit research organization that supports access to family planning — estimates U.S. funds gave over 47 million women and couples access to modern contraceptive care each year. That, in turn, prevented 17.1 million unintended pregnancies annually and saved 34,000 lives because women and girls did not die from complications during pregnancy or childbirth.
It's been a bipartisan undertaking, supported during Republican and Democratic administrations.
Now, with the sudden loss of programs, family planning work abroad is in jeopardy.
The Women's Refugee Commission, a non-governmental organization, found that almost 95% of U.S. foreign aid for sexual reproductive health and family planning was cut in 2025. Another report, from late 2025, by the Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition and its partners, estimates that in 2026 there will be a massive shortfall in funding needed to provide contraceptives globally.
In response to questions from NPR about funding for family planning, the State Department defended the administration's changed position: "President Trump has restored common sense to U.S. foreign assistance. The American people expect their tax dollars to support programs that save lives, advance U.S. interests, and reflect American values, not fund abortion-related activities, left-wing social agendas, or wasteful overseas bureaucracies."
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https://www.npr.org/2026/04/29/g-s1-118041/[WORD TOO LONG]
Sorry, the NPR link is too long--RHP server truncates it. I will try to find confirmation elsewhere.
To repeat, this is not about funding abortions. It is about contraception, which reduces the number of unwanted pregnancies and abortions.
My comment on this is twofold:
1. Trump personally has no stake in this issue; he is pandering to his racist Evangelical voter base. But do they ever think anything through? Cancelling funding for contraception in Africa means more Black people. Millions more.
2. Presidents should not have the power to refuse to execute the will of Congress. If Congress appropriates funds for a specific purpose, the President SHALL comply. Trump's refusal to do so is impeachable, arbitrary executive overreach.
@moonbus saidThe same administration that spent $1 billion to pay clean energy businesses just to move away.
The American people expect their tax dollars to support programs that save lives, advance U.S. interests, and reflect American values, not fund abortion-related activities, left-wing social agendas, or wasteful overseas bureaucracies."
@moonbus saidI think the biggest part of the problem is they have no idea what they are doing, or how things work. Anyone who knows what they're doing has been fired.
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The second Trump administration has moved to eliminate programs for contraception and other family planning work abroad. Congress actually appropriated funds for this work, but the administration has not spent it. And it has shut down programs aimed at helping people choose when to have children, such as efforts to improve access to birth control and provide r ...[text shortened]... the President SHALL comply. Trump's refusal to do so is impeachable, arbitrary executive overreach.
It's like if you bought an auto mechanic's shop and then hired a bunch of podcasters to fix cars. There should be no expectation that cars emerging from that shop would be fixed.
@wildgrass saidBingo.
I think the biggest part of the problem is they have no idea what they are doing, or how things work. Anyone who knows what they're doing has been fired.
It's like if you bought an auto mechanic's shop and then hired a bunch of podcasters to fix cars. There should be no expectation that cars emerging from that shop would be fixed.
“Only the best” … until they get caught.
@vivify saidThe 500 million annually Congress approved for family planning aid, including such vital services as midwives, is peanuts compared to what Trump is burning through daily bombarding and blockading Iran.
The same administration that spent $1 billion to pay clean energy businesses just to move away.
@moonbus saidDamn straight.
Quote
The second Trump administration has moved to eliminate programs for contraception and other family planning work abroad. Congress actually appropriated funds for this work, but the administration has not spent it. And it has shut down programs aimed at helping people choose when to have children, such as efforts to improve access to birth control and provide r ...[text shortened]... the President SHALL comply. Trump's refusal to do so is impeachable, arbitrary executive overreach.
I endorse every bit of this post.
Not funding this is totally insane.
More Republican "kicking-the-can-down-the-road", just because they'd rather give that money to their already fat-cat friends.
Everyone needs to read that again.
The Trump Administration is not saving that money, they are just redirecting it, shoveling it up the hill to the already rich.
They keep screaming "the debt, the debt!!!", but they are saving none, zero, zilch, nada towards the debt. It's going into the pockets of people exactly like Donald Trump.
They also keep screaming about "liberal fraud". Well, here's the real fraud, people.
@Suzianne saidWanna see the current federal debt?
Damn straight.
I endorse every bit of this post.
Not funding this is totally insane.
More Republican "kicking-the-can-down-the-road", just because they'd rather give that money to their already fat-cat friends.
Everyone needs to read that again.
The Trump Administration is not saving that money, they are just redirecting it, shoveling it up the h ...[text shortened]... ump.
They also keep screaming about "liberal fraud". Well, here's the real fraud, people.
Here ya go:
https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/datasets/debt-to-the-penny/debt-to-the-penny
I invite readers to scroll through (there is a > button at the bottom right of the page) and correlate the debt with presidents' tenures. It stood at just under 20 trillion when T45 took office in January 2017. Under T47, it stands at just under 40 trillion.
It's way beyond the gross national product. There is no way the economy is going to 'grow' its way out of this.
It must be obvious by now that Trump is fiscally irresponsible on a scale never-before seen or even imagined, and that this will never be paid off.
@moonbus saidHere's the sad part.
Wanna see the current federal debt?
Here ya go:
https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/datasets/debt-to-the-penny/debt-to-the-penny
I invite readers to scroll through (there is a > button at the bottom right of the page) and correlate the debt with presidents' tenures. It stood at just under 20 trillion when T45 took office in January 2017. Under T47, it stands at just und ...[text shortened]... y irresponsible on a scale never-before seen or even imagined, and that this will never be paid off.
Do you know what Trump majored in during his time at Wharton Business School?
That's right. Economics.
This is why we never got to see his grades or what place he graduated in his class.
The man has been a massive failure his whole life.
Enough said.
@Suzianne saidHe sold people on the idea that he is rich because he is smart -- and banks fell for this, again and again. At least the Deutsche Bank finally got wise and refused to loan him any more money. The reality is that he is stupid, certifiably moronic; he got rich because he cheated banks and the IRS, and because he has smart accountants and ruthless lawyers. He's a textbook case proving that no one ever got rich by working hard; people get rich by spending other people's money.
Here's the sad part.
Do you know what Trump majored in during his time at Wharton Business School?
That's right. Economics.
This is why we never got to see his grades or what place he graduated in his class.
The man has been a massive failure his whole life.
Enough said.
@moonbus saidI really hope I do not live long enough to see his actual deification.
He sold people on the idea that he is rich because he is smart -- and banks fell for this, again and again. At least the Deutsche Bank finally got wise and refused to loan him any more money. The reality is that he is stupid, certifiably moronic; he got rich because he cheated banks and the IRS, and because he has smart accountants and ruthless lawyers. He's a textbook case proving that no one ever got rich by working hard; people get rich by spending other people's money.
@moonbus saidThis is the Right's clumsy attempt to try to increase fertility rates in the US population because, like most other countries, people stopped having kids as economies have become more and more radically focused on making the wealthy even richer.
Quote
The second Trump administration has moved to eliminate programs for contraception and other family planning work abroad. Congress actually appropriated funds for this work, but the administration has not spent it. And it has shut down programs aimed at helping people choose when to have children, such as efforts to improve access to birth control and provide r ...[text shortened]... the President SHALL comply. Trump's refusal to do so is impeachable, arbitrary executive overreach.
Fascists need more soldiers to fight their wars, more consumers for their products, and more workers for their farms and factories. It's a standard theme with them to demand more fertility while cutting the masses off from access to money.
@moonbus saidHe's not stupid. Trump is a very smart man.
He sold people on the idea that he is rich because he is smart -- and banks fell for this, again and again. At least the Deutsche Bank finally got wise and refused to loan him any more money. The reality is that he is stupid, certifiably moronic; he got rich because he cheated banks and the IRS, and because he has smart accountants and ruthless lawyers. He's a textbook case proving that no one ever got rich by working hard; people get rich by spending other people's money.
Trump is a chiseler, a zero sum sociopath who wants more for himself and less for anyone he sees as competition.
Boardwalk Empire, Meyer Lanksy:
"Chiseling your partners is short sighted"
Gangs of New York, Amsterdam:
"Are you calling me a chiseler?!"
@AThousandYoung saidThere is no causal connection btw cancelling funding for family planning aid to Africa and increasing birth rates domestically. You know this. I know this. It takes culpable ignorance, or malice, to believe otherwise.
This is the Right's clumsy attempt to try to increase fertility rates in the US population because, like most other countries, people stopped having kids as economies have become more and more radically focused on making the wealthy even richer.
Fascists need more soldiers to fight their wars, more consumers for their products, and more workers for their farms and f ...[text shortened]... standard theme with them to demand more fertility while cutting the masses off from access to money.
Oh, wait, the clumsy Right are culpably ignorant and malefic.
@moonbus saidOh my bad I thought this was domestic.
There is no causal connection btw cancelling funding for family planning aid to Africa and increasing birth rates domestically. You know this. I know this. It takes culpable ignorance, or malice, to believe otherwise.
Oh, wait, the clumsy Right are culpably ignorant and malefic.
He's just cutting off the poor who he sees as competition from access to money and concentrating it in his own hands by cutting funding for family planning to Africa.
@AThousandYoung saidHe's stupid. He's on record telling the American public to inject disinfectant and put light bulbs inside their bodies to kill the COVID virus. He was not being sarcastic; he genuinely thought he was outsmarting his medical advisors. He wondered whether a nuclear bomb would stop a hurricane. Have you seen his YouTube rant about batteries and sharks?
He's not stupid. Trump is a very smart man.
Trump is a chiseler, a zero sum sociopath who wants more for himself and less for anyone he sees as competition.Boardwalk Empire, Meyer Lanksy:
"Chiseling your partners is short sighted"
Listen, if the batteries are powerful enough to electrocute you in the water, then they are going to electrocute sharks, too. DUH !