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A bipartisan pair of senators is urging Secretary of State Marco Rubio to unlock family planning funding and supplies for women caught in the Ebola outbreak sweeping the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s east, warning that the Trump administration’s freeze on such aid is deepening a maternal health crisis.
In a letter shared first with Semafor, Sens. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, asked Rubio to use $608 million in international family planning funds from the fiscal year 2026 appropriations bill and release $1.7 million worth of already-purchased contraceptive products which, the senators said, would otherwise be destroyed.
They also pressed for a “humanitarian exemption” allowing US support for the UN Population Fund, or UNFPA, so it can resume sexual and reproductive health programming in the affected region. President Donald Trump withdrew from the organization earlier this year.
“Providing sexual and reproductive health support to women is not a parallel track alongside the Ebola response: It is the Ebola response for the 642,000 women of reproductive age — including an estimated 37,820 pregnant women — in the affected areas,” the senators wrote.
They noted that Ebola infection during pregnancy carries a nearly 100% fetal loss rate and a severe maternal hemorrhage risk.
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The letter arrives amid a broader Trump administration rollback of family planning assistance, including the decision to allow roughly $8 million in contraceptive supplies to expire in a Belgian warehouse. The family planning push draws on lessons from the 2014-2016 West Africa Ebola outbreak, when maternal mortality rose an estimated 75% as women avoided clinics for fear of contracting the virus.
Last month, a UNFPA regional situation report found maternal deaths in Congo’s Ituri province, the outbreak’s epicenter, roughly doubled from an average of 3.1 to 6.2 deaths per week. UNFPA says it is facing a $20.8 million funding gap, with the Congo response alone still lacking 91% of its stated requirements.