To the editor:
I am appalled that rather than complying with a court order to restore lifesaving foreign aid, the Trump Administration has terminated more than 90% of all USAID programs. These actions fly in the face of decades of bipartisan consensus, congressional mandate, and basic human decency.
In 2023, a staggering 238,000 newborns were resuscitated at birth thanks to USAID supported health programs. As a result of the Administration’s actions, children are now at risk of being born who have never taken their first breath. Since the freeze started, people with TB have lined up at clinics to refill their medicines, but were turned away and denied treatment. In Zambia, medicines to treat life-threatening diarrhea haven’t reached children who were sick because the truck drivers were paid with USAID funds. And an entire year’s worth of seasonal malaria prevention is now at risk, needlessly exposing 12 million children to malaria.
Our members of Congress must demand the State Department reinstate terminated programs — especially critical humanitarian and development programs: TB, HIV, malaria, nutrition, maternal and child survival, education, and more. Countless lives, our standing in the world, and our Constitution are at stake.
William Deignan
Medford
