WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is expanding its ban on U.S. foreign aid for groups supporting abortion services to include assistance going to international and domestic organizations and agencies that promote gender identity as well as diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
An administration official said Thursday that the State Department would release final rules that expand the scope of the “Mexico City” policy that has already severely reduced assistance to international organizations that provide abortion-related care. The policy was first established under President Ronald Reagan, rescinded by subsequent Democratic administrations and reinstated in Trump's first term.
The new rules, first reported by Fox News, would halt foreign assistance from going toward not only groups that provide abortion as a method of family planning but also those that advocate “gender ideology” and DEI, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of the rules’ publication in the Federal Register on Friday.
The change, which threatens billions in funding for groups around the world, was part of a series of actions that the Trump administration timed to this week's anniversary of the now-overturned Roe v. Wade ruling and anti-abortion activists' annual March for Life demonstration in Washington.
The official said the expanded policy would apply to more than $30 billion in foreign aid that the U.S. provides and would cover not only foreign and U.S.-based aid agencies but international organizations.
LGBTQ+ and abortion rights advocates said the changes would force humanitarian aid groups and others to choose between U.S. funding and the sometimes entirely unrelated lifesaving services they provide around the world.
“The Trump administration’s expanded global gag rule puts politics between people and their care,” Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson said in a statement. “Simply put, the White House is putting medically necessary health care at risk for people around the world in service to a political agenda.”
Beirne Roose-Snyder, senior policy fellow at the Council for Global Equality, said, “It's hard for me to even begin to anticipate how destructive this will be.”
Anti-abortion advocates welcomed the expansion. SBA Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser said on a call with reporters that the Trump administration presented it to them alongside other new actions. Among them were the National Institutes of Health halting funding for research that uses human fetal tissue and the Small Business Administration launching a review into Planned Parenthood's use of COVID-era loans.
“All of these things are fantastic news,” Dannenfelser said.
It was not immediately clear how significant the impact of the foreign aid ban's expansion would be. The Trump administration has already slashed hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid and dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development, which had been the main provider of U.S. assistance.
But if the new rules are written as expected, “many more billions” of dollars will be affected than in any prior period, said Jen Kates, senior vice president and director of the Global and Public Health Policy Program at the health care research nonprofit KFF.
It is also the latest effort by the Trump administration to take aim at DEI programs in the federal government. The White House reposted a Fox News article on X seemingly confirming the plans, but did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
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