Cut in U.S. Aid Increases Maternal and Infant Mortality Rates in Afghanistan

Image: Aakriti Thapar / BBC

The BBC in a recent report reflected the bitter accounts of Afghan families who, after the closure of U.S. funded clinics, have lost women and children.

The United States, which for decades was the largest donor to Afghanistan and in 2024 provided about 43 percent of the country’s total international aid, in early 2025 with Donald Trump’s return to power almost completely stopped its assistance. This decision, along with the dissolution of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), led to the closure of more than 400 health centers, which for millions of citizens, especially women and children, had been the only hope of accessing healthcare services.

The BBC narrates that in the village of “Shishpul” in Badakhshan, Shahnaz was taken by her husband Abdul to the clinic during labor, but they were faced with locked doors. On the way back, Shahnaz gave birth to her child inside a taxi, but due to severe bleeding she died, and the newborn passed away minutes later. Abdul says: “If the clinic had been open, my wife and child would be alive today.”

Before its closure, the Shishpul clinic managed 25 to 30 births a month and provided families with basic medical services. But now pregnant women in mountainous and remote areas are forced to give birth at home or along long and unsafe routes.

According to the BBC, after the closure of these centers, the deaths of pregnant mothers in northeastern Afghanistan have risen significantly. In the central hospital of Faizabad, the number of female patients has more than doubled, while the hospital’s budget has fallen from 70,000 dollars to only 25,000 dollars.

On the other hand, the ban on women’s education in the field of health has resulted in a severe shortage of female specialists. Women who were deprived of continuing their studies say: “In the clinic we had hope; today nothing remains. Our pain has become untreatable.”

Meanwhile, with the Taliban’s strict restrictions against women, not only have they blocked aid delivery and the training of female medical staff, but they have also made millions of ordinary citizens, especially women and children, victims of their discriminatory policies.