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USAID’s reproductive health funding has saved millions of lives. Now it’s gone. • Alabama Reflector

Published

3 months ago

February 9, 2025

Staff Editor

alabamareflector.com – Jessica Kutz, The 19th – 2025-02-09 07:01:00

USAID’s reproductive health funding has saved millions of lives. Now it’s gone.

by Jessica Kutz, The 19th, Alabama Reflector
February 9, 2025

This story was originally reported by Jessica Kutz of The 19th. Meet Jessica and read more of her reporting on gender, politics and policy.

On Sunday, Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, boasted that he was gutting the federal agency tasked with providing foreign aid to its poorest.

“We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper,” Musk, the tech billionaire head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, posted on his social media platform, X.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was established in 1961 to provide foreign assistance to impoverished countries around the world through food aid and humanitarian and economic development work. It is also one of the world’s largest providers of contraception through its family planning program. According to the Congressional Research Service, the agency’s funding in 2023 was about $40 billion, which represented less than 1 percent of the federal budget.

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Beth Schlachter, senior director of U.S. engagement for MSI Reproductive Choices, a global non-governmental organization (NGO) that provides contraception and abortion care, said Musk’s comment made her feel sick.

“You can just hear the cavalier, malicious, cruel approach to it as they’re laughing,” she said, referring to a conversation Musk broadcast earlier in the day on his platform about the cuts. “I can’t get past it. It’s so malicious and disgusting. You have to believe that the cruelty is the point.”

MSI Reproductive Choices doesn’t receive USAID funding, but Schlachter has worked for decades at both the State Department and with NGOs on programs that build up support for sexual and reproductive health rights, maternal care and access to contraception globally. She’s seen the ways USAID funding has saved lives through its family planning initiatives. Now she worries about the immediate fallout for people across the world. She and other experts say women and LGBTQ+ people will face significant and deadly consequences because of an abrupt pause in aid.

“There will be maternal deaths, and there will be unintended pregnancies,” she said.

USAID started its family planning program in 1965 as an anti-population growth initiative, Schlachter said. “[It was] really a racist program to ensure that Black and Brown people had less babies. But it morphed over time into being the backbone of the reproductive health sector within global health.”

Experts say the family planning work, which ranges from sexual education, access to contraceptives, and maternal and infant health, have all been implemented as a way to bolster the human rights of women and girls around the world. By giving people the ability to delay pregnancy into adulthood, and the choice to go to school or have fewer children, they and their families are healthier.

“Ultimately, in planning their families, their children are more prosperous. They themselves are able to work now,” said Onikepe Owolabi, director of international research at the Guttmacher Institute, a Washington-based organization that tracks reproductive health policy.

USAID has been rocked by the Trump administration after an executive order signed on his first day in office halted all foreign funding for 90 days and a stop work order issued on January 24 for all existing foreign assistance awards. While a waiver was issued a week later to continue funding for “life-saving humanitarian assistance,” family planning was specifically excluded from the action. Separate from the executive orders, it was reported by the New York Times on Thursday that nearly all staff from the agency of about 10,000 employees would be let go.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been announced as the acting administrator for the agency — signaling a potential, though according to legal experts not constitutional, move to dissolve the agency’s functions into his department. The State Department did not respond to a request for comment.

For over a decade, USAID has spent about $600 million annually for its family planning work.

“The good that money has done is unquantifiable,” Owolabi said. She received training through a USAID-funded program for HIV prevention and treatment and family planning while she was a medical student in Nigeria.

She’s seen how that money has led to better maternal health outcomes and helped combat HIV in places like Rwanda and Uganda through training doctors and providing supplies and antiretrovirals to clinics. Now she’s hearing accounts of how that work has been affected.

“Imagine a rural area in Uganda, a small health outpost where women will come with their babies for care, or their pregnancy, or [where a] child can receive immunization, or for family planning counseling,” she said. “The staff can’t work because of the stop work order, the drugs, the medications, the commodities … are no longer available because USAID is one of the largest procurers and suppliers of commodities in this country. So you handicap health workers, you handicap the health system. You hold the logistics and supply chain ransom.”

Demonstrators gathered on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025, to protest the Trump administration’s dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)

As of 2023, 67 percent of contraceptives supplied through USAID went to Africa, where some of the leading causes of death for girls and women are related to pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections like HIV. According to an analysis by the Guttmacher Institute, if no contraceptive care is provided by USAID in 2025, that will lead to about 4.2 million unintended pregnancies and over 8,000 deaths related to pregnancy and childbirth complications.

“Women will die as a result of this decision,” said Rachel Clement, senior director of government relations at PAI, a global advocacy group. “Those people will die from preventable maternal mortality causes.”

Owolabi said even Momentum, a program implemented during the first Trump administration to help women survive childbirth in places like India, Senegal and Nigeria, has been shut down. One of the initiatives under the program was created to reduce maternal and infant mortality by training doctors on how to perform cesarean sections and other types of lifesaving procedures, as well as how to insert and take out intrauterine devices. Without that critical care, “they are exposing women with complicated pregnancies, a majority of who are low income, to die simply because they can’t access it,” she said.

The pause on family planning work has also impacted the United Nations Population Fund, the UN’s sexual and reproductive health agency. USAID provides between 40 to 50 percent of the funding that goes to humanitarian work at the UN.

This includes maternal health programs in Afghanistan, where the UN has had a presence for about 40 years. Up until the funding pause, the UN was able to continue providing that care through midwives that worked in rural health clinics in mountainous regions of the country.

“We try to have a midwife in every single one of [the clinics], and we have over 1,700 midwives that are supported by U.S. funds that are mostly frozen right now,” a UN official said.

Prevention and care for HIV is another concern for advocates. While the State Department issued a waiver to continue providing funding for HIV treatment, experts say it’s still not reaching clinics on the ground through programs like the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. The global program, known as PEPFAR, has been credited with saving more than 26 million lives through providing access to antiretrovirals, which suppress the virus, and preventing the spread of HIV in 5 million children, according to UNAIDS, the United Nations program on AIDS.

While the State Department funds the program, much of the work is implemented by USAID. According to reporting from The New York Times, no money has been distributed from USAID since the initial freeze on foreign assistance, and stop work orders are still in effect. Groups on the ground are waiting for instructions to restart work, but so far none have been issued. As a result, hundreds of organizations had to halt services, according to The New York Times.

Once someone stops taking antiretrovirals, the virus can become detectable again within a few weeks, making people more likely to transmit it to others. A temporary disruption to the medication can also lead to drug resistance for someone with HIV, making their regimen less effective. PEPFAR also pays for PrEP, a medication that protects those at high risk of contracting HIV. According to the State Department, PEPFAR accounts for 90 percent of PrEP treatment initiations globally.

While advocates say HIV treatments could resume under the State Department program, new executive orders aimed at weeding out “gender ideology” and DEI in the department mean it may not serve those most at risk of exposure to HIV.

“Are they going to allow men who have sex with men? Are they going to include female sex workers, who have the highest risk of HIV transmission, in programming?” Owolabi asked. “Or are they going to impose their values on programming, and thus not going to protect the most at risk?”

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Alabama Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Alabama Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Brian Lyman for questions: info@alabamareflector.com.

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News from the South - Alabama News Feed

Alabama Legislature sends 2026 ETF, General Fund budgets to Gov. Kay Ivey

Published

1 day ago

April 30, 2025

Staff Editor

alabamareflector.com – Alander Rocha – 2025-04-30 07:01:00

by Alander Rocha, Alabama Reflector
April 30, 2025

The Alabama Legislature Tuesday gave final approval to the state’s two budgets for the 2026 fiscal year, but not without a battle.

The Alabama Senate passed a $3.7 billion 2026 General Fund budget late Tuesday night on a 30-0 vote after an hours-long slowdown.

HB 186, sponsored by Rep. Rex Reynolds, R-Huntsville, would provide a 10% increase ($347 million) over the current budget for the 2026 fiscal year, which starts October 1.

“In many cases, you had a reduction in what your request had been. Everyone of us had that … so we’re in a dichotomy here where we have the largest budget we’ve ever had, and yet, we have the tightest constraints and control that we’ve had in recent memory,” said Sen. Greg Albritton, R-Atmore, who chairs the Senate Finance and Taxation General Fund Committee, pointing to Medicaid’s significant budget increase that will bring its budget to over $1 billion.

Sen. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham, asked for the 125-page funding bill to be read in its entirety Tuesday afternoon, which delayed the vote by hours. He said after the Senate adjourned that he didn’t want controversial bills to be passed without deliberation, and that he was afraid the Senate would move to adopt a different set of bills to consider.

“[The House] did have a second calendar, and it was going to be the same thing here in terms of the desire to have a second calendar, and I thought that we need to just work on that particular calendar,” Smitherman said after the Senate adjourned.

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The Alabama Medicaid Agency, which provides health insurance for over 1 million Alabamians, nearly all children, elderly citizens and those with disabilities, will get $1.179 billion from the state, a $223.8 million (19%) increase over this year. Ivey requested $1.184 billion in February, about $5 million more than what the House approved.

The Alabama Department of Corrections, which administers the state prisons, will get a $90.1 million increase (11%) to $826.7 million.

The Alabama Department of Human Resources, which provides child and adult protective services, enforces child support payments and administers food and family assistance, will get $148.9 million from the state in 2026, a $4.7 million (3%) increase from the current budget.

The Alabama Department of Mental Health, which provides mental health care services in the state, will get a $4.7 million increase (2%) to $244 million. The Legislature cut the funding from Ivey’s recommendation by $3.7 million.

But senators also appeared to want to send a message to the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles, which has drawn mounting criticism from Democratic and Republican senators over low parole rates and what senators consider a lack of responsiveness to their questions about the parole process. The Senate cut the board’s funding from $94.5 million to $90.6 million, a 4.1% decrease.

In addition, Sen. Clyde Chambliss, R-Prattville, added an amendment to make funding for the Board of Pardons & Paroles conditional on the board developing parole release guidelines. The amendment passed on a 27-0 vote.

“What they do, as y’all know, they adopt guidelines. Those are supposed to be updated and revised. They have not done that,” he said.

The board has faced backlash after parole rates declined significantly after 2017, when members granted parole to about 54% of applicants. The rates fell as low as 7% at times, according to an analysis by the ACLU of Alabama in 2023, but rebounded to slightly more than 20% within the past year.

The Senate also passed HB 185, also sponsored by Reynolds, which would appropriate $50 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to the Department of Finance and provide over $12.6 million to the Unified Judicial System.

“This bill is supplemental monies just taking federal money and appropriating it,” Albritton said.

The House concurred with the changes late Tuesday evening, sending the bill to Gov. Kay Ivey.

The Senate also concurred with House changes to SB 112, sponsored by Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, a nearly $10 billion 2026 Education Trust Fund budget (ETF).

The House changes added $17.6 million to the budget, bringing it to a 6% increase over the 2025 ETF budget. The budget does not contain pay raises for teachers in the 2025-26 fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1. But it includes a $99.2 million increase for the Public Education Employees’ Health Insurance Plan, as well as funding for workman’s compensation for education employees and paid parental leave.

The Senate also concurred with the ETF supplemental funding bills, including SB 113, also sponsored by Orr, a $524 million 2025 supplemental appropriation for education that passed the House with an amendment changing language to clarify dual enrollment programs funding.

The Senate also concurred with House changes to SB 111, sponsored by Orr, which would appropriate $375 million over three years to implement changes to the state’s school funding formula.

The House added an additional $80 million from the Education Opportunity Reserve Fund to the Creating Hope and Opportunity for Our Students’ Education (CHOOSE) Act Fund, a voucher-like program that gives tax credits for non-public school spending, including private school tuition. The first-year cost estimate will go from $100 million to $180 million, an 80% increase. Over two-thirds of applicants to the program are already in private school or are homeschooled.

The story was updated at 10:30 a.m. to include comment from Sen. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham, regarding the procedural delay.

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The post Alabama Legislature sends 2026 ETF, General Fund budgets to Gov. Kay Ivey appeared first on alabamareflector.com

Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Centrist

The content primarily reports on the legislative proceedings and budget approval in Alabama, focusing on the specifics of the Senate’s actions, including discussions and amendments. The tone is factual, without clear support or opposition to any political party or position. It details the actions of both Republican and Democratic senators, presenting them neutrally. The mention of funding allocations, including increases for Medicaid and the Department of Corrections, appears to be a straightforward report on the outcome of legislative decisions, without showing favor to any side. The coverage adheres to neutral, factual reporting rather than offering an ideological stance.

News from the South - Alabama News Feed

Bail reform bills moving through Alabama Legislature in final days of session

Published

2 days ago

April 29, 2025

Staff Editor

alabamareflector.com – Ralph Chapoco – 2025-04-29 07:01:00

by Ralph Chapoco, Alabama Reflector
April 29, 2025

Two bills that would change Alabama’s bail system are working their way through the Legislature in the waning days of the 2025 session.

The Senate Judiciary Committee hosted a public hearing Wednesday for HB 42, sponsored by Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, which gives judges the authority to allow defendants to pay a portion of their total bond to be released from pretrial detention.

HB 410, sponsored by Rep. Shane Stringer, R-Citronelle, which was approved by the House Judiciary Committee, modifies the composition of the Alabama Professional Bail Bonding Board, expands the exemptions for the fees that bail bond companies must pay the court, increases penalties for bail jumping and adds more regulations for bail bond companies when they operate in another state.

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A message was sent to Stringer Monday seeking comment.

HB 42 has passed the House and is awaiting a vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee. The House is scheduled to vote on HB 410 on Tuesday. England’s bill adds three words, “a part of” back into an Alabama statute that were removed when the same Legislature enacted the Alabama Bail Reform Act of 1993.

The removal of the words meant judges in the state could not allow defendants to pay a percentage of their bond to get release from pretrial detention.

“What that translates into is a large amount of money that would normally go to the court system, instead of going to the court system, it goes to a bondsman,” England said to the committee Wednesday.

People can secure their release after an arrest if they pay a bail bond company. The premium, which is typically 10% of the total amount of the bond, is paid to the bail bond company, which then must ensure the individuals go to their court appearances.

The money that people pay when released on a percentage bond would be retained by the court and kept if defendants fail to appear for their court dates.

The Alabama Bail Bond Association has been a vocal opponent of the bill, speaking out against the legislation at a March public hearing and the House Judiciary Committee considered it then and eventually approved the bill a week later.

Victor Howard, vice president of the Alabama Bail Bond Association and bail bond company owner, said that enacting the legislation would reduce accountability for defendants to appear for their court dates.

Chris McNeil, the president of the Alabama Bail Bond Association, suggested Monday in an interview that the rates that people would not appear for court would increase. He also cited records from the Alabama Administrative Office of Courts saying that people who paid cash to be released from pretrial detention in 2022 and 2023 had a failure to appear (FTA) rate of 55%.

“The court just can’t function when you have a failure to appear rate of 55%,” McNeil said Monday. “The bonding companies were averaging about a 14%-15% failure to appear rate. And were able to trim that rate by returning defendants back to court.”

England told the committee that the numbers do not present a fair comparison to percentage bonds.

“The numbers are obviously going to be off because there are more people on smaller offenses with cash bonds versus somebody who is on a large bond with a bondsman,” England said to the committee on Wednesday. “Obviously, there is going to be a higher number of FTAs on smaller cases, traffic tickets, because they all count.”

Jerome Dees, policy director from the Southern Poverty Law Center, supported the legislation.

“The vast majority of times when there was an FTA that was ultimately secured, and the defendant showed up in court, it largely was due to law enforcement bringing that individual in and not the bail bond company,” he said to the committee on Wednesday. “That is not to say that it never happened, but the vast majority of time it was law enforcement bringing that particular individual in.”

McNeil said in an interview Monday he supports HB 410, Stringer’s bill.

“It expands the Alabama Professional Bail Bonding Board by adding a sheriff to the board, adding a layperson, so I think that is very important,” he said.

It also states that any fees that bail bond companies pay to the court that have not been deposited within 90 days and that have an expiration date “shall be deemed uncollected” and will no longer hold the bail bond company responsible for making the payment.

The bill also exempts bail bond companies from fees that the courts or district attorneys have not attempted to collect past one year from the original due date.

HB 410 also adds more conditions such that the bail bond company will not pay a fee, known as forfeiture, to the court when in cases that the defendant fails to appear in court.

McNeil said the bill would cancel that forfeiture payment if someone was not placed in the National Crime Information Center and failed to appear in court, or if the bail bond company brings back a defendant that the jail refuses to accept.

The bill also addresses instances when an individual travels out of state and enhances the penalty for bail jumping, going from a Class A misdemeanor to a Class D felony, punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a $7,500 fine.

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The post Bail reform bills moving through Alabama Legislature in final days of session appeared first on alabamareflector.com

Political Bias Rating: Center-Left

The content focuses on legislative efforts to reform Alabama’s bail system, highlighting a bill sponsored by a Democratic representative aimed at allowing partial bond payments to reduce the financial burden on defendants. It presents arguments from both supporters and opponents, including the bail bond industry’s concerns and civil rights advocacy perspectives. The article leans slightly left by emphasizing criminal justice reform and the perspective of proponents seeking to reduce penal system inequities, yet it maintains a generally balanced tone by including conservative viewpoints and the legislative process details.

News from the South - Alabama News Feed

7-Year-Old Calls 911, Helps Save Family Member's Life | April 28, 2025 | News 19 at 10 p.m.

Published

3 days ago

April 28, 2025

Staff Editor

www.youtube.com – WHNT News 19 – 2025-04-28 23:17:38

SUMMARY: Seven-year-old Maddux Kendrick from New Market showed remarkable bravery by calling 911 when his stepmom, Megan Douglas, who has epilepsy, suffered a seizure on New Year’s Day. While playing video games and watching TV, Maddux noticed Megan fell and was having a seizure. Calmly, he first called Megan’s mother and then 911, providing precise information and helping the operator monitor Megan’s breathing until EMTs arrived. His quick thinking likely saved her life, as she later had another seizure and might have suffered worse alone. Maddux received a Good Samaritan Award for his courage and presence of mind, making his family very proud.