Last Friday, Vice President J.D. Vance announced the Trump administration’s sweeping expansion of the global gag rule. Although advocates were bracing for it, the new rule emphasizes the administration’s intensifying strikes on sexual and reproductive rights worldwide.

The global gag rule has been employed by every Republican president since Ronald Reagan and rescinded by every Democratic president since. The rule mandates that foreign nongovernmental organizations cannot provide, counsel on, refer for, or offer information on abortion care as a method of family planning, even in countries where abortion is legal, even with their own non-U.S. funds. If they do, they cannot receive U.S. family planning assistance.  

The Trump administration already expanded the global gag rule when it took office in 2017 and again in 2025, to cover all U.S. global health assistance, increasing the amount of affected funding from around $600 million to $12 billion. 

The latest expansion extends abortion restrictions more broadly than ever before—to include all foreign aid, including humanitarian programs run by U.S. organizations, UN partners, and other governments, and programs that promote gender equality, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).  

The harm to women and families continues. The Population Institute joins our colleagues and partners in condemning this damaging policy. With the 2025 dismantling of USAID, once a global leader in family planning and reproductive health, so much progress has been lost for women and girls worldwide. One year ago was the beginning of the avalanche that reversed decades of progress, leaving an estimated 130,000 women in low- and middle-income countries without access to contraceptive services every day; over one year 47.6 million women and couples will be denied modern contraception, according to the Guttmacher Institute. The consequences are profound with an estimated 17.1 million unintended pregnancies and about 34,000 preventable pregnancy-related deaths. 

Congress must act now to pass the Global Health, Empowerment, and Rights (HER) Act, legislation that would permanently repeal the global gag rule, and stop the seesaw of damage to women’s lives.