LEGAL BATTLE OVER US FOREIGN AID CUTS

Health advocates sound alarm on US foreign aid suspension impacts

- NICOLA DANIELS [e-mail]

ONCE a child is born HIV-positive or a malnourished infant dies, no restoration of funds can undo the loss. Each day of suspended aid compounds the toll: vaccination gaps fuel outbreaks; treatment lapses seed drug-resistant strains; and shuttered clinics sever lifelines for survivors of violence and displacement.

This is among the warnings contained in court documents filed by several health advocacy groups in an ongoing legal challenge to the Trump administration's suspension of nearly all foreign aid and the effective dismantling of the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

Recently, a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals overturned a lower court's temporary block on the aid freeze, ruling that the case lacked a valid legal basis as currently presented. However, one judge dissented, cautioning that Trump's actions may have violated constitutional principles.

In response, the organisations have urged the full court to rehear the case, arguing that the block (injunction) should be reinstated to prevent further irreparable harm while the court fully addresses the legal and constitutional questions.

Among those filing a new amicus curiae brief are Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), the Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI), health professionals, and affected individuals from Kenya and South Africa, including renowned South African physician Dr. Salim Abdool Karim.