KISUMU — Vice President JD Vance announced 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. Experts state that at least $30 billion in U.S. aid could be affected by the new funding restrictions.

"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 policy reshapes the flow of American assistance to countries and organizations that align with standards set by the Maputo Protocol, an international convention signed by African countries two decades ago that declares safe abortion a human right and obliges signatory nations to legalize abortion in cases of rape, incest, fetal malformation, or risk to a woman's health.

Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 70% of global maternal deaths, with approximately 180,000 pregnancy-related deaths recorded annually across the African continent. Sub-Saharan Africa records over 6 million unsafe abortions annually, according to the African Institute for Development Policy. Nardos Hagos of the International Planned Parenthood Federation said the policy shift places reproductive health advocates on the defensive.

"We've now moved into a new era where we are the ones who are in opposition because the most powerful and influential supporters of reproductive health — the U.S. and a lot of Europe — are now more aligned with anti-rights groups," Hagos said. "We're gonna see more women dying from unsafe abortions," Hagos added.

Publicly available tax filings from 17 U.S. anti-abortion charitable groups show funding sent to Africa increased 50% between 2019 and 2022, reaching over $16 million, according to an analysis by the Institute for Journalism and Social Change. U.S. anti-abortion organizations spent almost $9.4 million in Africa during 2023 and 2024, according to previously unreported data analyzed by the institute. Focus on the Family spent $370,000 in Africa between 2019 and 2023, according to the same analysis.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has over 1 million followers in Africa, and the church has held "Strengthening Families" conferences throughout Africa over the past eight years. The church is not required to complete annual financial disclosures detailing revenue, contributions, and expenses, unlike other tax-exempt charitable organizations. Sean E.R. Donnelly, the church's communications manager for Africa, stated that about a quarter of the $1.5 billion the church spent overseas last year was in Africa. The church stated it generally opposes elective abortion in most cases but allows exceptions for rape, incest, or danger to a woman's health in counseling its members.

Local rights groups stated that pressure from local religious lobbies stalled the process of decriminalizing abortion in Sierra Leone. The broader landscape of U.S. funding restrictions intersects with the activities of organizations that have expanded their presence on the continent.