Trump Ends Funding for HIV/AIDS Prevention Program That’s Saved 26 Million Lives

The impact of this cruelty has been immediate and devastating. The outlet emphasized that, even if an organization already purchased the medications with U.S. aid and stocked it at their clinics, they’re now barred from distributing it. Global health workers told the Times that clinic appointments are already being canceled, patients are already being turned away, and people with HIV are “facing abrupt interruptions to their treatment.” 

“The partners we collaborate with are in shock, and they do not know what to do because their lifesaving mission and commitment has been breached,” Asia Russell, executive director of the global HIV treatment organization Health Gap, told the Times of these developments. Speaking to NPR, Russell called Trump’s new policy “catastrophic” and “much more cruel.”

Disrupted HIV treatment can be deadly; virus levels in people with HIV will spike almost immediately, greatly increasing the risk of spread, and potentially leading to the formation of global, resistant strains of HIV. This flies directly in the face of a statement from State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce to NPR, claiming it’s a “moral imperative” for the U.S. to “no longer… blindly dole out money with no return for the American people.” 

Not only should the U.S., the wealthiest nation in the world, provide global aid for obvious humanitarian reasons, but it’s wildly stupid to suggest a global health crisis, such as a new strain of HIV, wouldn’t impact the U.S. PEPFAR had a mere $6.5 billion budget—a drop in the bucket compared to other insane budget priorities Trump is committed to, like more funding and weapons for a country that’s committing genocide, that do not provide any “return for the American people.”

South Africa relies on PEPFAR for about 20% of its budget for HIV prevention and treatment. Researchers say that without PEPFAR, as many as 600,000 in the country could die in the next decade. But numerous poorer countries, like South Sudan, rely on PEPFAR for far more of their HIV budgets. 

While PEPFAR, which, again, was created by Bush, has largely evaded high-profile Republican scrutiny, some politicians have criticized or called for the program to lose funding, claiming the program funds—you guessed it!—abortion. (Which… aren’t we all funding abortion at this point?? If you aren’t, you should be!) Their eye-roll-inducing argument is that global health organizations that receive PEPFAR might also be providing family planning services, which would make a lot of sense for them to do! Also, given that one in three untreated pregnant people with HIV will pass the virus to their babies, it’s hard to argue PEPFAR isn’t “pro-life.”

On Friday, Trump also signed an executive order reinstating the global gag rule, which prohibits any global organization that receives U.S. aid from so much as providing information about abortion services, let alone providing any. The consequences will be massive, just as they were during Trump’s first term: Family planning clinics in poor countries are expected to shut down in large numbers, spiking unplanned pregnancies, unsafe abortions, and maternal mortality.

“The cruelty is the point” very quickly proved the modus operandi of the first Trump administration, and, as expected, his second administration is quickly proving even crueler.