The Dark Export of “Family Values” to Africa

The Trump administration’s latest move to restrict US funding for organizations promoting access to abortion overseas has sparked outrage from reproductive rights advocates and healthcare providers in Africa. However, what often gets lost in the debate is the long-standing export of a particularly American brand of anti-abortion ideology to the continent.

For decades, US-based anti-abortion groups have been quietly flooding Africa with millions of dollars in funding under the guise of promoting “life” and “family.” This influx of cash has had a devastating impact on reproductive health services, emboldening harassment and intimidation campaigns against healthcare providers who offer safe abortion services.

According to an analysis by the Institute for Journalism and Social Change, 17 US anti-abortion nonprofit groups spent over $9.3 million across Africa in 2023-2024, in addition to the $16 million they sent between 2019 and 2022. This is no coincidence – it’s a deliberate strategy to undermine reproductive rights and impose American-style restrictions on abortion.

The data speaks for itself: Africa is already the deadliest place in the world to be a woman of reproductive age, with high proportions of maternal deaths and unsafe abortions. While proponents of the new US funding restrictions claim they’re protecting lives, healthcare providers and activists say the opposite – that these policies will only lead to more women dying.

In countries like Kenya and Ethiopia, US-funded anti-abortion groups have targeted healthcare workers and reproductive rights advocates with online harassment, lawsuits, and even detention. This opposition has made abortion providers fearful of coming into work, forcing them underground or into hiding. The goal is clear: strangle reproductive health services on the continent.

Many African countries have already taken steps to protect reproductive rights by signing the Maputo Protocol in 2003, an international convention declaring safe abortion a human right. However, implementation has been spotty at best, leaving women to seek out illicit procedures and putting them at risk of death or serious injury.

The new US funding restrictions are a stark reversal of progress made in recent years. In 2022, Kenya’s High Court ruled that access to abortion is a fundamental right – but this decision was overturned by an appeals court just last May. Representatives from 20 African countries finalized a draft charter at a conference in Ghana in June calling for the rejection of sexual and reproductive health rights.

The implications are dire: more women will die from unsafe abortions, healthcare providers will continue to face harassment and intimidation campaigns, and the continent will be forced further back into a dark age of reproductive health. Women’s bodies will be controlled by politicians and ideologues rather than their own choices.

It’s time for the US government to stop hiding behind rhetoric about “protecting life” and start taking responsibility for its role in undermining reproductive rights on the continent. The lives of African women will be lost if we don’t act – and fast.

Exposing the sinister export of anti-abortion ideology to Africa can help advocates push back against this tide of repression. The US government must be held accountable for its actions, and reproductive rights organizations on the continent must continue to fight for safe abortion services. It won’t be easy, but it’s a battle that’s long overdue.