In a small rural hospital in Ethiopia more than two decades ago, a teenage girl arrived at Dr Abebe Shibru’s clinic, alone, frightened and pregnant. She was just 14 and had been raped. But with one of the world’s most restrictive abortion laws then in place, she was turned away without help. Later, Dr Shibru learned that she had tried to end the pregnancy herself using herbal medicine, inserted into her uterus and had bled to death.
Spurred on by an alarmingly high maternal mortality rate, the country repealed its harsh law in 2005. But, twenty years on, leading doctors are warning these gains could be reversed as Trump’s aid cuts decimate the country’s family planning and reproductive health services, and anti-abortion groups move in to fill the vacuum.
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