As U.S. funding disappears, organizations like FUSA are forced to scale back life-saving support for migrants and marginalized communities.
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For the past few months, lifesaving resources and funding have come to a screeching halt after the Trump administration shuttered various departments and budgets related to foreign aid, generating global ripple effects. Countries with the greatest need are facing myriad challenges with insufficient funding to maintain public health programs, including in the sexual reproductive health and rights (SRHR) space.
Before the Trump administration declared its cuts, Argentina-based Fòs Feminista partner FUSA was providing reduced-cost psychology sessions for Venezuelan migrants, a very vulnerable population that has been through some of the worst trauma imaginable. Some of them needed intense psychiatric treatment, and some had been hospitalized for suicide attempts. However, when FUSA found out about the loss of funds, they were forced to tell each patient that these psychology sessions could no longer be provided. With no warning, FUSA patients lost access to essential listening and support services. One patient was able to continue their treatment by paying for the sessions individually, but they were not able to sustain it over time.
FUSA was one of the first organizations to provide legal abortion care when abortion was decriminalized in Argentina. Their work has always stood out for the quality of the health services, for their collaborations with other civil society organizations, and for the support they give via subsidized benefits to people who cannot afford this care otherwise.
The canceled psychology sessions are just one example of how the recent devastating cuts to foreign aid have affected FUSA, but there have been numerous significant consequences. Because of cuts to the Pan American Health Organization, a planned event in the city of Jujuy that would have provided access to contraceptive methods (IUS, IUD, implants and vasectomies) for about 200 people was also canceled.
To add to the pressures FUSA is feeling right now, economic pressure from the Argentinian government as well as U.S. dollar inflation make it harder for FUSA to generate sufficient funds to sustain the organization’s continuity of care.
The Trump administration’s reckless decision-making is already having real impacts on people worldwide, and it’s clear that these harmful actions will continue to have far-reaching consequences across the globe, especially for women, girls, gender-diverse people, and other marginalized communities. Now more than ever, it is essential for all SRHR partners and allies to stand in solidarity and support each other as our movement weathers this storm.
