When Shahnaz went into labor, her husband Abdul called a taxi to take them to the only medical facility accessible to them. She was in a lot of pain, he recalled. The clinic, located 20 minutes away in Shesh Pol, had been the birth location for their two older children. As they navigated gravel tracks while Abdul comforted his wife, the horrific reality hit them; the clinic was closed.
I didn't know it had shut down, he said, his anguish evident. The clinic was among over 400 facilities that closed in Afghanistan after the Trump administration cut nearly all US aid earlier this year, dismantling significant healthcare services in one of the world's poorest countries.
The Shesh Pol clinic was pivotal, assisting around 25-30 deliveries monthly with a trained midwife, offering essential medicines and healthcare services. With no nearby medical options available, Abdul and Shahnaz made a painful decision to return home, but with urgency, they stopped on the roadside as Shahnaz delivered their baby girl.
Tragically, she succumbed to complications shortly after, with their newborn also passing a few hours later. Abdul lamented, I wept and screamed. My wife and child could've been saved if the clinic was open.
Reports indicate that since the reductions in healthcare funding, maternal mortality rates are skyrocketing in Afghanistan. The US government has justified these funding cuts by citing concerns that aid was being misused by terrorist groups such as the Taliban. However, with no concrete data on the mortality linked to these cuts, the everyday lives at stake cling to an unrecorded tragedy. Many families continue to suffer in silence, buried under the weight of loss as they navigate the harsh realities of a compromised healthcare system. "tags": ["Afghanistan", "Health", "US Aid Cuts", "Maternal Mortality"]
I didn't know it had shut down, he said, his anguish evident. The clinic was among over 400 facilities that closed in Afghanistan after the Trump administration cut nearly all US aid earlier this year, dismantling significant healthcare services in one of the world's poorest countries.
The Shesh Pol clinic was pivotal, assisting around 25-30 deliveries monthly with a trained midwife, offering essential medicines and healthcare services. With no nearby medical options available, Abdul and Shahnaz made a painful decision to return home, but with urgency, they stopped on the roadside as Shahnaz delivered their baby girl.
Tragically, she succumbed to complications shortly after, with their newborn also passing a few hours later. Abdul lamented, I wept and screamed. My wife and child could've been saved if the clinic was open.
Reports indicate that since the reductions in healthcare funding, maternal mortality rates are skyrocketing in Afghanistan. The US government has justified these funding cuts by citing concerns that aid was being misused by terrorist groups such as the Taliban. However, with no concrete data on the mortality linked to these cuts, the everyday lives at stake cling to an unrecorded tragedy. Many families continue to suffer in silence, buried under the weight of loss as they navigate the harsh realities of a compromised healthcare system. "tags": ["Afghanistan", "Health", "US Aid Cuts", "Maternal Mortality"]
