Funding cuts leave Liberian girls without contraception

Donor funding gaps are limiting contraceptive access for Liberian women and girls, raising fears of unsafe abortions, writes Tina S.Mehnpaine

[Bong County, SciDev.Net] Sixteen-year-old Beatrice had travelled three hours to the Rural Women and Girls’ Rights Foundation (RWGRF) in Liberia for her free Depo-Provera injection. But when she arrived, she was told the contraceptive was out of stock.

She was referred to the nearby Palala clinic, but it had run out too.

“I am confused,” said Beatrice, an 11th-grade student who dreams of becoming a medical doctor.

Beatrice began having the three-monthly contraceptive injection after giving birth to her first son at 15, hoping to avoid another unintended pregnancy and stay in school. Now, without access to the contraceptive, she fears she may have to buy it from private pharmacies, where the cost is out of reach for many girls in her community.

“It’s too expensive, so others who cannot afford it will suffer,” she said.

Unintended pregnancies are a major public health concern in Liberia, where about 35 per cent of all pregnancies end in abortion. The country has one of the world’s highest maternal mortality rates, with unsafe abortion a significant factor.

Civil society organisations warn that dwindling donor support is now threatening access to contraceptives, particularly in rural communities where adolescent pregnancy rates remain high.

Stockouts, funding cuts

At the Palala clinic, in Liberia’s Bong County, registered midwife Garmai Sumoku confirmed the shortage.

She says recurring stockouts at the facility are caused by delayed supplies from Liberia’s Ministry of Health—a bottleneck also affecting community organisations like RWGRF.

“Sometimes when they come for their revisit, the commodity will not be present, but we give them condoms because condoms are always available and ask them to encourage their boyfriend to use them while they wait for a restock,” Sumoku told SciDev.Net.

Nowaii Kaiser, head of the RWGRF, said the NGO previously received contraceptives and condoms from DKT Liberia, a non-profit provider of family planning products, but these donations have now stopped.

In response, DKT Liberia programme manager Erika Richards-George said donations are provided upon request and after assessing an organisation’s unmet needs.

“Of late, we’ve not received any request from the Women and Girls’ Rights Foundation in Bong County,” Richards-George said in an email. “They should engage with DKT, and we will take it from there.”

For adolescents in remote communities such as Palala, access to free family planning services are vital for avoiding unintended pregnancies.

Such services in Liberia have long depended on international donors, now withdrawing their support. USAID, which funded key health and education programmes, ended its operations last year, creating a major funding gap.

That gap widened further when Sweden announced plans to close its Liberia embassy, whose focus is development assistance.

US health deal ‘gaps’

In December 2025, Liberia signed a five-year US$176 million health deal with the United States, supporting HIV/AIDS and malaria programmes. However, the agreement does not include contraceptives or maternal health services, according to NGOs.

The Swedish and Irish embassies continue to support youth-friendly centres in southeastern counties, but advocates say significant gaps remain elsewhere.

Liberian civil society organisations working in reproductive health say there is a lack of transparency around the US-Liberia health compact and its omission of contraceptive and maternal health services.

“Currently, as we speak, we have this package that we don’t know what is in it,” said Naomi Solanke, executive director of the Community Health Initiative.

“We are facing a stockout in contraceptive services. Community health facilities that have contraceptive services don’t have the logistics to push it to the community.”

Speaking during a consultation on the health compact in May, reproductive rights expert Aminata Kamara-Sneh of the Swedish Association for Sexuality Education said excluding sexual and reproductive health services from major health agreements was concerning, given Liberia’s maternal mortality burden.

“We know that for women of reproductive age who are between 15 and 19, a high percentage of them will die because of maternal-related issues,” she said.

“So if this is not a priority in a healthcare strategy, then it becomes an issue of concern.”

As part of the agreement, Liberia would increase its own domestic health spending by nearly  US$51 million over the five-year period.

“You have to invest 50 million towards the implementation of this agreement, but it does not include maternal mortality,” said Kamara-Sneh.

“Where is funding going to come from to cover the issue of maternal mortality, which is a national emergency?”

Unsafe abortions

Kaiser says the shortage will undoubtedly put women and girls at risk.

“When there are no contraceptives in the hospital, it puts a lot of threats to women and girls,” Kaiser told SciDev.Net at the organisation’s office in Palala. “I will tell you unsafe abortion in rural communities is increasing.”

For Kaiser, the issue is personal. She told SciDev.Net that she founded RWGRF after her teenage daughter died following complications from an unsafe abortion after taking a traditional herbal preparation to end an unwanted pregnancy.

Since then, the organisation has educated women and girls on the dangers of unsafe abortion and the importance of contraceptives—work now threatened by the stockouts in Palala.

Beatrice first encountered RWGRF during one of its community outreach campaigns. She joined the programme, where she received counselling on family planning, safe sex and the dangers of unsafe abortion, and began accessing contraceptive services.

“I have never missed the schedule,” she says. “RWGRF has really been helping us here.”

Losing that access could be critical for many women. A 2023 survey published by Liberia’s Ministry of Health and its partners found that more than 38,000 pregnancies ended in unsafe abortion in 2021, with more than six in ten women experiencing moderate to severe complications.

Stalled legislation

RWGRF is one of ten civil society organisations under the Amplifying Rights Network, which advocates for sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and supports the passage of Liberia’s revised public health bill. The legislation remains stalled in the Senate because of disagreements over abortion provisions.

The network recently announced that its Swedish-funded project supporting this advocacy is also ending, removing another layer of support from an already stretched system.

Advocates warn that without clear support for contraceptives, more women may be forced to resort to unsafe abortion.

“It has been shown that if we continue to turn a blind eye to providing access to safe abortion, women and girls will continue to die unnecessarily,” Kamara-Sneh said. “This is a health issue. Safe abortion can be provided, and it can save lives.”

This piece was produced by SciDev.Net’s Sub-Saharan Africa English desk.