Trump administration to block foreign aid from subsizing DEI and trans rights overseas | Trump administration
The Trump administration will bar organizations from using U.S. foreign aid to subsidize diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and what the administration calls “gender ideology.” The new policy will affect approximately $30 billion in foreign aid.
The decision, confirmed to the Guardian by a state department spokesperson on Thursday morning, marks a dramatic expansion of the so-called “Mexico City policy”, which prevents non-US non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from receiving some forms of US funding if they provide abortion-related services or advocate for abortion rights abroad. This policy, which abortion rights supporters now call the “global joke rule”, will also apply to international organizations operating abroad and US-based NGOs.
“President Trump continues to fulfill his promise to end foreign aid,” a State Department spokeswoman said in an emailed statement.
The Mexico City policy, first implemented by Ronald Reagan in 1984, is usually rescinded when a Democrat wins the White House and reinstated when a Republican wins. Generally, the policy applies only to dollars earmarked for family planning assistance, accounting for about $600 million worth of aid.
But during his first administration, Trump expanded the policy to cover all global health aid, changing the terms of an estimated $7.3 billion worth of aid. Advocacy groups say the impact is devastating. MSI Reproductive Choices, a global family planning organization operating in nearly 40 countries, said the policy led it to close services in countries such as Uganda, Madagascar and Nepal.
“Then you have a generation of women and girls growing up in this stigmatized environment who have no idea where to go for information about their health and their rights,” said Sarah Shaw, deputy director of advocacy at Marie Stopes International. “Any effort to expand this is even more disastrous.”
After returning to power in January 2025, Trump reintroduced his version. Mexico City politics. Now, his newest expansion of the policy will affect not only the money allocated to global health aid but also the bulk of foreign aid.
It would also prevent groups from using foreign aid funds to pay for what a state department spokesman called “abortions as a form of family planning.” The spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for clarification on how this requirement differs from past versions of the Mexico City policy.
The New Mexico City policy decision deepens the Trump administration’s ongoing crackdown on DEI efforts and the rights of transgender and gender non-binary people. (“Gender ideology” is right-wing shorthand for the idea that gender is fluid and that trans and nonbinary people exist.) Trump signed a series of executive orders that generally ended the federal government’s support for DEI initiatives, declared that there are only two genders, and attacked the government’s efforts to recognize transgender people. His administration also undermined research to advance racial and gender equality.
Fox News Digital first reported About news regarding the expanded Mexico City policy.
The State Department will formally release three final rules outlining the new policy on Friday, when thousands of anti-abortion activists are expected to gather in Washington, D.C., for an annual gathering called the March for Life.
Without these final rules, it’s hard to know how the policy will work or how many people it will affect, experts say.
“The effects could be endless. They could have impacts in ways we can’t even imagine right now,” said Amy Friedrich-Karnik, director of federal policy at the Guttmacher Institute, which supports abortion rights. “Not only is this policy exporting harsh U.S. abortion bans around the world, we are also exporting ideologically driven mandates to countries and the world that are against human rights, against health, against justice. It’s just devastating.”
