Santa and her husband, James, walked an hour from their village to reach Marie Stopes’ mobile clinic in Amuru district of northern Uganda. They came so that Santa could receive free family planning services, some of the only access to contraception for women in remote areas of Uganda. It’s rare for husbands to support their wives’ choice to use birth control, but Santa and James agree that “spacing children” makes their economic burden lighter.
Marie Stopes is unable to access as many women as they had in previous years due to cuts in USAID funding. This was as a result of the Trump administration’s reinstatement of Global Gag Rule. GGR is meant to target organizations that provide abortions, yet in reality, funding cuts often trickle down and end up most impacting reproductive health services for poor communities of women around the world — often in places where abortion is already illegal, like Uganda.
– Laura Kasinof