As world leaders gather at the 81st Session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA 81) this month, experts in a special collection of articles published by The BMJ warn that the proposed merger of UN Women and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA)—two vital institutions for protecting sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR)—will weaken global commitments to gender equality.
Protecting SRHR—which includes access to contraception, safe and effective care during pregnancy and birth, and relationship education—is fundamental for health, gender equality, and wider development.
Developed in partnership with the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health & Health Policy (CUNY SPH), the collection examines threats from U.S. policy shifts, declining multilateral cooperation, deep funding cuts, and an expanding anti-rights movement.
Authored by international experts across law, medicine, health, and political science, the seven articles in the collection explore practical solutions to build more resilient, equitable, and accountable SRHR systems:
- " Reimagining multilateralism for global sexual and reproductive rights ," by Clarisa Bencomo, Terry McGovern, and Oriana López Uribe
- " Civil society resistance to anti-rights mobilization ," by Terry McGovern, Amy Meng, Maeve O'Rourke, and Rima Athar
- " New York state resistance to federal regression of sexual and reproductive rights, " by Danielle Greene, Diana Romero, and Holly Farkas
- " International fiscal architecture for advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights, " by Attiya Waris, Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky, Gorik Ooms, and Rachel Hammonds
- " Central role of civil society in advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights ," by Jaime M. Gher, Dana Zhang, Nana Abuelsoud, and Naureen Shameem
- Opinion: " United Nations reform must protect sexual and reproductive health and rights ," by Terry McGovern
- Editorial: " Confronting financial and political headwinds against global sexual and reproductive health and rights ," by Chelsea Clinton
The collection launched at a special event in Manhattan on September 15, 2026.
In her editorial marking the launch, Chelsea Clinton, vice chair of the Clinton Foundation and the Clinton Health Access Initiative, notes that official development assistance is estimated to have fallen by up to 46% from 2024 to 2026, severely affecting reproductive health.
She warns U.S. cuts alone could lead to 40–55 million additional unintended pregnancies and 12–16 million unsafe abortions across 51 countries - and she calls on health and political leaders "to seize the opportunity to build lasting systems for governance, financing, and delivery of sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice."
In her lead opinion article, CUNY SPH Senior Associate Dean Terry McGovern strongly opposes merging UN Women and UNFPA, which she says is part of a larger crisis of global governance.
She urges UN representatives to protect both agencies' independent mandates, warning that "decades of progress risk being undone unless the UN prioritizes its commitments to human rights."
Read the full collection here: https://www.bmj.com/collections/SRHR
