In a damning affidavit filled with harrowing details, a USAID career foreign service officer alleges that the Trump administration’s “rushed, haphazard, and cruel” effort to shut down the agency has placed their pregnant wife and unborn child in grave danger. Among the many risks cited, the officer claims the administration denied medically necessary medevac services, leaving them stranded in a country plagued by “routine political upheaval” and an “ongoing ethnic and religious insurgency.”
Since the Trump administration ordered what amounts to a possibly unlawful shutdown of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the employee, an overseas technical office deputy director, says "each day has brought a new constellation of suffering."
"My wife is 31 weeks pregnant, after years of infertility and $50,000 of personal investment in countless fertility treatments across multiple tours, spanning three continents," the USAID employee, identified only as "Terry Doe," writes in the affidavit, part of a lawsuit by the American Foreign Service Association. AFSA says it is "challenging the unprecedented effort to dismantle" USAID.
"We have been overjoyed with this pregnancy but that joy has turned to turmoil, sadness, and dread. Because of the stress and strain of the constant onslaught by my employer in recent weeks, my wife has repeatedly been in the hospital with a life-threatening condition and stress-related complications," the affidavit reads. "Because of these medical complications, she was told she needed to immediately evacuate because of a high risk of hemorrhage, which would be life-threatening to both my wife and our baby."
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They say the "request for medical evacuation was denied twice by the State Department [in] Washington," and were told that "there is no USAID funding for medevacs." They charge, "this administration cruelly has taken the position that our lives are acceptable collateral damage for their political gain."
In a particularly damning indictment, they write: "I later learned that there was a verbal directive from State Department Washington leadership to Regional Medical Officers and the Medical Evacuations Team to cease all USAID medical evacuations, hospitalization support, and guarantees of payment for urgent medical services."
They do not identify who "State Department Washington leadership" is.
"Prior to this Administration, each of these services was provided to all Foreign Service Officers and their Eligible Family Members, in no small part because we serve in remote, austere, and unstable countries throughout the globe."
And while they finally were able to get medevac approval thanks to intervention from an unnamed U.S. Senator, it was too late: "before my wife could be medically evacuated, on February 8th, my wife began hemorrhaging and had to be admitted to the hospital at our overseas post."
It is no longer medically safe for her to get on a plane, they say, "even for a very short flight to better regional care and the three successive flights necessary to travel back to the US was simply a nonstarter."
"Now I'm afraid for her and my baby's health because of this rushed, haphazard and cruel push to shut down the agency. This didn't have to happen. I don't know how to explain to our daughter, who is living through all of this with me and my wife, that our own government is doing this to us," they say.
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They also allege that there "has been constant uncertainty, constant changing directives, a full and abject failure to follow any of our pre-established processes and procedures," they say, while also alleging some of the directives they have been given "often times may be illegal."
"Jokes from administration political staff about us being federal flotsam continue," they also write.
Politico's Kyle Cheney, who posted screenshots and a link to the affidavit, calls it, "Another medical horror story in a court affidavit from a USAID employee stationed overseas." He adds: "The employee, identified only as Terry Doe, says he’s been in touch with 25 other pregnant foreign service officers who are fearful their care will be cut off if the agency closes down completely on March 8."
Others also responded.
"Read this story," urged professor of law and former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance. "This isn’t pro-life. This is treating federal employees-people in government service like the enemy instead of the heroes they are. The people who villainized Hillary when one of our embassies was overrun are now victimizing our own people."
U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride (D-DE) called it, "Absolutely horrifying from a 'pro-life' administration."
New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof writes, "Elon Musk and Donald Trump have been brutalizing the families of American citizens working abroad for USAID, sometimes in dangerous and remote places. So remember that the Musk assault on USAID isn't just killing foreigners but also threatens US citizens."
Republican former U.S. Congresswoman Barbara Comstock blasted President Trump: "Horrifying story of what Trump’s unilateral mindless cutting off of USAID funds to families in remote areas means to one family - a serious and potentially deadly threat to the life of a pregnant mother and child. Outrageous and unconscionable."
Democratic former U.S. Congressman Tom Malinowski, who served in the Obama administration as Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor in the Obama administration also weighed in.
"If you want to burn down part of the American government because all you know about it comes from crazy tweets, fine," he wrote. "But don’t tell the Americans who signed up to serve that part of OUR government overseas that you won’t even pay to medevac them home in an emergency."
Former USAID official Jeremy Konyndyk, now president of Refugees International, unleashed outrage at Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Elon Musk.
Secretary Rubio, Konyndyk wrote, "this is happening ON YOUR WATCH. Put a stop to this insanity already. Pete Marocco's cruel recklessness is going to get US personnel killed."
Marocco, according to The New York Times, is "the State Department official who took over the remains of U.S.A.I.D. and is now charged with reorienting a foreign aid mission to serve Mr. Trump’s agenda."
"Shaking with anger after reading what Pete Marocco and Elon Musk are doing to patriotic @USAID workers who are serving their country abroad," Konyndyk added. "Absolutely sociopathic."
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