The story from The Associated Press, published July 18, claims the Trump administration’s “global battle” against abortion is affecting the maternal health of Africa’s pregnant women.
Africa’s terrible poverty and lack of basic resources are now news, including a lack of basic health needs, but the AP story blames pregnancy-related deaths on the White House. The cause is President Trump cutting off taxpayer dollars that flow through government agencies and NGOs, or non-governmental organizations.
The article quotes unnamed “experts” who estimate $30 billion is at risk worldwide that could reshape “health policies” that include abortion services.
Kelsey Pritchard, of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, told American Family News the AP article is a textbook example of liberal journalists with an agenda.
“Writing an article on abortion, that involves several leaps of logic, in order to further their narrative that we should allow abortion at any point,” she complained. “And we should be forced to pay for it, not just in the U.S., but across the world."
In the AP story on abortion, the obvious “leap of logic” in the article is tying pregnancy deaths to a lack of abortion, referred to as “reproductive health” and “reproductive rights” in the story.
A similar-themed AP story from Nepal, which also published this week, also accused the White House of inflicting needless suffering. Despite its premise, that AP story triggered online mockery because it says transgender health care workers turned to prostitution when the paychecks stopped coming from USAID.
"Our tax dollars no longer fund employment for transgender Nepalese sex workers," Rep. Brandon Gill, the Texas Republican, wrote on X. "Thank you for reminding us why defunding USAID was long overdue.”
Back in the AP abortion story, another alleged leap is the claim U.S.-based “anti-abortion groups” are sending millions of dollars to Africa to stop abortions there. The story cites the far-left Institute for Journalism and Social Change. The institute claims $16 million has been “funneled” by 17 groups to Africa with the purpose of fighting abortion. One example is the Mormon Church.
Sean E. R. Donnelly, a spokesman for the Mormon Church, told the AP the Latter-Day Saints sent $1.5 billion in 2025 to help people around the world. About a quarter of that went to Africa, the spokesman said, to help families with healthcare, education, and emergency relief.
Another group cited in the story is Colorado-based Focus on the Family. That well-known ministry spent $370,000 in Africa between 2019 and 2023, the left-wing institute told the AP, but the story fails to connect those funds to women dying from a lack of abortion access.
Pritchard said it’s not journalism when the goal is to "fearmonger" to hide the fact abortion takes a human life.
“I think news organizations need to take a critical look and think should we be subscribing to AP and using their things, or should we look for an alternative way to get real news out there?" said Pritchard. "They're saying that we as Americans should be paying for foreign abortions. How insane is that?"
American Family News uses Associated Press articles and photos for its news website, AFN.net, but material is edited to meet AFN guidelines.
