President Trump Ends All Foreign Abortion Spending
President Donald Trump has expanded protections against U.S. taxpayer funding for abortions overseas, issuing sweeping new restrictions that pro-life advocates say will end all direct and indirect support for foreign abortion providers, along with curbs on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and gender ideology programs.
Vice President J.D. Vance unveiled the “historic expansion” of the Mexico City Policy last Friday at the March for Life in Washington, D.C. The policy, originally established by President Ronald Reagan in 1984, bars foreign nongovernmental organizations receiving certain tax-funded U.S. global health assistance from performing or promoting abortion as a method of family planning.
The new rules, issued Wednesday by the State Department, close previous funding loopholes and apply to all non-military foreign assistance—approximately $30 billion overall, including $14 billion for humanitarian activities.
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This triples the amount of aid affected compared to Trump’s first term, when the policy covered about $10 billion in global health assistance.
Vance said the Trump administration is returning accountability to U.S. foreign policy. He described how under the Biden administration, U.S. policy was to “export abortion and radical gender ideology all around the world” and to “relentlessly bully developing countries into parading their far-left views.”
“It is not our job to promote radical gender ideology,” Vance said, “it’s our job to promote families and human flourishing.”
He added that the Trump administration “believe[s] every country in the world has the duty to protect life.”
The changes include three directives collectively known as the Promoting Human Flourishing in Foreign Assistance (PHFFA) Policy. The rule on gender ideology, titled “Combating Gender Ideology in Foreign Assistance,” bans for children and adults “sex-rejecting procedures or sex-rejecting social transition,” including any resources or counseling that advises this as a treatment for gender dysphoria.
It prohibits all promotion of gender ideology, including through lobbying, education, public campaigns, drag queen shows, or any other means.The new policy on DEI prohibits treating individuals “as members of preferred or disfavored groups, rather than as individuals” based on agency, merit and capability.
All U.S. organizations, many of which were previously exempt, are now required to pledge that abortion, DEI and gender ideology activities are purged from overseas programs—even those using non-U.S. funds.
The new rules do not apply to existing grants, though 87% of Biden-era grants overseen by the now-shuttered U.S. Agency for International Development were canceled last year.
The rules extend for the first time to bilateral aid through foreign governments, which must pass down the restrictions to funding recipients. They also apply to voluntary contributions to multilateral organizations like the United Nations, which received roughly $13 billion in U.S. voluntary funding in 2024.
To receive those funds, such agencies must halt programs promoting abortion, DEI and gender ideology.
The policies take effect in 30 days, subject to potential legal challenges and review under the Congressional Review Act. They cite federal and state law, Supreme Court opinions and executive orders as legal grounds.
Trump reinstated the Mexico City Policy via memorandum on Jan. 24, 2025, revoking Biden-era rescissions and directing expansion to broader global health assistance. The reinstated policy, also known as Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance, prohibits U.S. government global health funding from supporting foreign NGOs that perform or promote abortion.
It also blocks foreign organizations receiving such grants from providing financial assistance to other foreign NGOs that do the same.
The reinstatement has defunded International Planned Parenthood Federation and other major abortion companies overseas, resulting in an estimated $100 million loss to International Planned Parenthood’s budget and hundreds of millions in broader impacts on pro-abortion groups.
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