Trump’s presidency already looks set to have a catastrophic effect on sexual reproductive health and rights on the African continent. I work as a reproductive and gender health specialist in Uganda and we’re still feeling the impacts of Trump’s last presidency. No doubt, African women and girls across the continent are worried about how Trump’s second presidency will impact their health and lives.
In his last term, we saw an emboldening of anti-rights, anti-gender and anti-democratic forces, while Christian right values were weaponised against minorities. And this spread well beyond its borders. With his latest election win, the groups that backed his bid to power will likely feel even more emboldened.
Trump’s administration attempted to create entirely alternative international human rights frameworks like the Geneva Consensus Declaration – which, contrary to its title, is neither a document arrived at through consensus nor does it have anything to do with Geneva. It was in fact developed and launched with the signatures of 34 countries, many of which are states with poor human rights records, including Uganda and Kenya. The GCD seeks to challenge the existence of an international right to abortion and the research and development progress that has happened in the last decade to make safe abortions accessible globally.
