The Trump administration is expanding its ban on U.S. foreign aid to organizations promoting gender identity and diversity, equity and inclusion programs. The State Department will release final rules on Friday that broaden the existing “Mexico City” policy, which has restricted assistance to international groups providing abortion-related services. The expansion applies to more than $30 billion in annual foreign aid.

The policy change marks the administration’s broadest effort to reshape which organizations worldwide receive U.S. support, targeting programs it views as advancing ideological agendas rather than delivering humanitarian aid.

The Policy Expansion

The State Department will release final rules on Friday that expand the scope of the “Mexico City” policy, which has restricted U.S. assistance to international groups providing abortion-related services since it was first established under President Ronald Reagan. Under the expansion, the policy will also bar foreign aid to organizations that promote gender identity or operate diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

An administration official announced the change Thursday on condition of anonymity ahead of the rules’ publication in the Federal Register. The official said the expanded policy would apply to more than $30 billion in foreign aid that the U.S. provides and would cover not only foreign and U.S.-based aid agencies but international organizations.

The Trump administration has already slashed hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid and dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development, which had been the main provider of U.S. assistance.

Opposition and Concerns

LGBTQ+ and abortion rights advocates said the changes would force humanitarian aid groups and others to choose between U.S. funding and the sometimes entirely unrelated lifesaving services they provide around the world.

“The Trump administration’s expanded global gag rule puts politics between people and their care,” Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement. “Simply put, the White House is putting medically necessary health care at risk for people around the world in service to a political agenda.”

Beirne Roose-Snyder, senior policy fellow at the Council for Global Equality, said, “It’s hard for me to even begin to anticipate how destructive this will be.”

Anti-Abortion Support

Anti-abortion advocates welcomed the expansion. Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of SBA Pro-Life America, said on a call with reporters that the Trump administration presented the foreign aid changes to them alongside other new actions.

“All of these things are fantastic news,” Dannenfelser said.

It was not immediately clear how significant the impact of the foreign aid ban’s expansion would be. If the new rules are written as expected, “many more billions” of dollars will be affected than in any prior period, said Jen Kates, senior vice president and director of the Global and Public Health Policy Program at KFF, a health care research nonprofit.

Among the other new actions the administration announced Thursday, the National Institutes of Health is halting funding for research that uses human fetal tissue, and the Small Business Administration is launching a review into Planned Parenthood’s use of COVID-era loans.

The changes were timed to the week’s anniversary of the now-overturned Roe v. Wade ruling and anti-abortion activists’ annual March for Life demonstration in Washington.

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