Funding from the U.S. government’s flagship HIV/AIDS program was used to pay the salaries of four nurses in Mozambique who provided 21 abortions between 2022 and 2024, according to reports.
This news came on the heels of Sen. James Risch, the Republican chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, announcing that he had put a hold on $1 billion in funding for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, pending an investigation.
Abortions are legal in Mozambique, but a U.S. law, the U.S. Helms Amendment, prohibits any U.S. foreign funding from being spent on abortions. The revelations come after several years of congressional Republicans criticizing the Biden administration’s handling of PEPFAR and accusing it of supporting abortions.
About the author
Adva Saldinger@AdvaSal
Adva Saldinger is a Senior Reporter at Devex where she covers development finance, as well as U.S. foreign aid policy. Adva explores the role the private sector and private capital play in development and authors the weekly Devex Invested newsletter bringing the latest news on the role of business and finance in addressing global challenges. A journalist with more than 10 years of experience, she has worked at several newspapers in the U.S. and lived in both Ghana and South Africa.
