US President Donald Trump’s administration has been accused of undermining global health through its plan to extend funding restrictions to foreign governments, NGOs and international organizations that support diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
The administration intends to expand Mexico City’s policy, also known as the global gag rule, to cover organizations that promote what it calls “gender ideology” or DEI programs. The move could affect key health services, including those that support women, young people and marginalized groups.
Health experts say the expanded rule would pressure governments and international partners to abandon anti-discrimination policies or risk losing a major source of U.S. aid. Programs such as HIV prevention programs for young women in Africa and vaccination campaigns led by female health workers could be among those affected.
Beth Schlachter, senior director of US foreign affairs at MSI, called the reports “deeply troubling.” He said: “Such a move, which goes far beyond previous restrictions, would be an insidious usurpation of sovereignty, pressuring governments to change their own laws and policies in exchange for US funding, despite repeated claims to respect national autonomy.
“It risks causing real human suffering, undermining global health and destabilizing decades of partnerships and progress.”
A senior State Department official confirmed the policy direction, saying: “The State Department continues to advance President Trump’s America First foreign policy. The department will soon take additional steps to close loopholes that allowed taxpayers to fund abortion promotion in previous iterations of the Mexico City policy and expand the scope of the policy to ensure that every penny of U.S. foreign assistance prioritizes values. Americans, not to the woke agenda.
Rajat Khosla, director of the Association for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, said the new policy could have “unimaginable effects.”
“The interventions have already created a chilling effect,” he said, warning that aid-dependent countries would face “very difficult decisions” if the rule is expanded.
Beirne Roose-Snyder, senior policy researcher at the Council for Global Equality, said DEI initiatives were essential to reaching vulnerable communities. He added that the proposed restrictions appeared designed to control how organizations operate even outside of U.S.-funded projects.
“The administration wants to be able to do ‘ideological purity’ tests before helping after a tsunami,” he said.
Yumnah Hattas, gender justice lead at Frontline Aids, described the plan as part of a “growing transnational anti-rights movement”.
He warned: “Human rights will be violated on a large scale.” Hattas said the gag rule had previously pushed abortions underground and could now threaten access to contraception, HIV prevention and gender-based violence services.
He urged affected countries to reject US financing tied to the new conditions.
“If you ignore the United States government, then it doesn’t matter anymore,” he said. “So the global impact of the global gag rule no longer exists because it was rejected by the world.”
(The UK Guardian)
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