US to expand anti-abortion aid rule to cover ‘gender ideology,’ diversity

By Simon Lewis

WASHINGTON, Jan 22 (Reuters) – The Trump administration is set to expand the Mexico City Policy that blocks U.S. assistance to organizations that provide or promote abortions to cover groups involved in what the administration calls “gender ideology” and diversity, equity and inclusion, an administration official said on Thursday.

The policy, which opponents call the “global gag rule” because they say it silences abortion rights advocates, will be expanded on Friday to include international organizations and U.S. nongovernmental organizations, the official said.

The change will cover $30 billion of U.S. foreign assistance. The move was first reported by Fox News.

Established by former President Ronald Reagan in 1984, the Mexico City Policy, which previously only applied to foreign NGOs, has been rescinded by each Democratic president since and reinstated when a Republican returns to the White House. It was most recently restored by Trump in January 2025. 

“The State Department will release three final rules on Friday expanding the Mexico City Policy to protect foreign assistance from subsidizing not only abortion as a method of family planning, but also gender ideology (and) discriminatory equity ideology/DEI,” said the official, who confirmed the plans on condition of anonymity.

The Trump administration has aggressively closed government programs that relate to acceptance of transgender people or gender-affirming care, including as part of an overhaul of foreign aid that saw the U.S. Agency for International Development shuttered.

It has also shut down offices and fired staff working on diversity initiatives, which Trump and his supporters say unfairly discriminate against white people and men.

The State Department in November announced plans to classify actions under pro-diversity policies and state subsidies for abortion as human rights abuses in its reports.

(Editing by Cynthia Osterman)