Confronting financial and political headwinds against sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice

Recent cuts to foreign aid1 are hitting sexual and reproductive health particularly hard. Right wing political movements are pressing governments and multilateral institutions to restrict reproductive rights, exacerbating the general retrenchment in bilateral and multilateral health funding.2 Institutions that finance sexual and reproductive health commodities, set standards, and defend related rights are losing money and political support at the same time.3The BMJ Collection on protecting global sexual and reproductive health and rights is therefore welcome and timely (www.bmj.com/collections/SRHR). It examines how these disruptions are rolling back decades of progress and identifies new opportunities to mobilise support for sexual and reproductive rights, health, and justice (SRHRJ).Meaningful advances have been made in SRHRJ over recent decades, many of which were enabled by global coordination, including through formal governance mechanisms, donor funding, and sustained civil society action. From 2000 to 2023, global maternal mortality fell 40%.4 Millions more women around the world have…