Rights groups slam Trump's expansion of 'Mexico City' abortion policy

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Rights groups and charities slam Donald Trump’s administration’s decision to extend a U.S. policy banning groups that receive foreign aid from promoting abortion – Even with your own money – a move that has been called a “catastrophic and fatal” move.

The policy, known as the “Mexico City Policy” or by critics the “global gag rule,” was After Trump returns to the White House last year. This has been a tradition among Republican presidents since Ronald Reagan introduced the policy in 1984. Democratic presidents have repeatedly abandoned the policy.

In what Vice President J.D. Vance called a “historic expansion of the Mexico City policy,” the United States will stop funding any organization working on diversity and transgender issues overseas. Mr Vance said the change would make the policy “approximately three times the size of what it was before… We’re proud of it because we believe in fighting for life”.

In response, Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International’s senior director for research, advocacy policy and campaigns, said: “The expansion of the global gag rule is a violation of human rights. By targeting organizations that support diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and recognize gender diversity, the Trump administration is deliberately deepening inequality and putting millions of lives around the world at risk.”

“The global gag rule is a disastrous and deadly U.S. policy. It stifles health care systems, censors information, and violates the rights to health, information and freedom of expression… Doubling down on this policy is cruel, reckless and ideologically driven. Extending it to international and U.S. organizations will impact the poorest and marginalized first and hardest,” she added.

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Beth Schlachter, senior director of U.S. foreign relations at MSI Reproductive Choices, said of the Mexico City decision: “Just as the Trump administration actively seeks to undermine abortion access domestically, [in the US]they are now exporting the same playbook around the world, a move that will deprive women of life-saving care and deepen stigma. This follows the sudden and deadly withdrawal of U.S. development and humanitarian aid in 2025, destroying decades of trust overnight, disrupting life-saving services, and denying women and girls basic health care and reproductive choices. “

In addition to reviving the Mexico City policy, Trump also announced a complete freeze on foreign aid spending when he returned to office, and subsequently slashed aid. The United States is currently working on new financing deals with African governments. The pledges offer aid money in exchange for certain conditions — ranging from mining rights and access to valuable patient data to agreement to spend national health budgets on U.S.-mandated priorities. The agreements replace a previous series of health agreements signed by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which have since been scrapped.

MSI is concerned that the vague language opens the door for the government to impose more rules and restrictions after signing the agreement, such as the government saying it cannot use its own tax dollars for abortion services or risk losing U.S. funding.

Sarah Shaw, Director of Communications, MSI, Told before independent: “The real manipulative nature of these compacts is not what they say, but what they don’t say. And there are a lot of loopholes in the language that benefit the U.S. government.”

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In a joint statement, the leadership of multiple congressional groups including the Congressional Reproductive Freedom Caucus (RFC), Congressional Equality Caucus (CEC), Democratic Women’s Caucus (DWC), Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC), Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC), and Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) condemned the Mexico City policy decision, saying:

“this [Mexico City] By expanding existing rules, Donald Trump has weaponized U.S. global health assistance to an unprecedented degree against the people it is meant to help, at the expense of the lives and health of women and girls.

The statement added: “We strongly condemn this weaponization of U.S. foreign aid to the detriment of human rights and global health. We will not rest until we ensure that our foreign aid funding is never again used as a weapon against women, people of color, or LGBT+ people.”

This article is part of The Independent Rethinking global aid project