Responding to the announcement by U.S. Vice President JD Vance at the March for Life in Washington, confirming an unprecedented expansion of the Mexico City Policy, or ‘global gag rule’, Beth Schlachter, MSI’s Senior Director for US External Relations, said:
“The unprecedented expansion of the global gag rule to apply to all non-military US foreign assistance is a global attack on abortion and gender diversity and a dangerous escalation in how domestic U.S. abortion policy is imposed on other countries.
“It puts people’s health, rights, and lives at risk and follows the Project 2025 playbook to export the administration’s agenda to ban abortion; discriminate against trans, nonbinary, and intersex people; and restrict work on diversity, equity, and inclusion, advancing gender equality, and LGBTQI+ rights.
“Just as the Trump administration has aggressively sought to cripple abortion access at home, they are now attempting to do the same worldwide. By tying U.S. funding to a blanket-ban on all gender and diversity, equity and inclusion work, it also risks inflicting unspeakable harm on those who are already most vulnerable.
“This follows the human carnage caused by the abrupt and deadly withdrawal of U.S. development and humanitarian assistance in 2025, which overnight, decimated decades of trust, disrupted lifesaving services and deprived women and girls of essential healthcare and reproductive choices.
“The moment is made even more alarming by recent U.S. guidance instructing embassies to scrutinise countries’ abortion laws and prevalence for its annual report on global human rights abuses: a sharp departure from its long-established focus on freedom of speech, free elections, rule of law, and political persecution and torture.
“Combined with signals that some forms of contraception may be treated by the U.S. as abortifacients, this amounts to a full-scale assault on reproductive health worldwide.
“At MSI we will continue to stand strong, working with our partners around the world to ensure that everyone can get the lifechanging and lifesaving care that they need.”
This statement was updated following the announcement by U.S. Vice President JD Vance at the March for Life in Washington on Friday 23rd January.
Notes to Editor
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