January 25, 2025

Trump’s assault on human rights, bodily autonomy and democracy

Late on Friday, January 24, President Trump doubled down on his administration’s anti-abortion policies, reinstating the harmful Global Gag Rule, rejoining the non-binding Geneva Consensus Declaration (GCD), and strengthening the Hyde Amendment.

“These actions add up to a violation of human rights, bodily autonomy and democracy, as well as an unprecedented attack on the reproductive rights of people in the U.S. and across the globe,” says Ipas President and CEO Anu Kumar.

The Global Gag Rule (GGR)—which Trump expanded in his first term—applies not just to U.S.-funded family planning and reproductive health programs but to all global health assistance.

First established in 1984 as the Mexico City Policy, the anti-abortion policy has been used as a political football by both Republican and Democratics administrations—rescinded by one and reinstated by the other. It prohibits non-U.S. organizations that receive U.S. global health assistance from using their own, non-U.S. funds—or funding from any other source — to provide abortion services, referrals, information, or to advocate for abortion access, even if abortion is legally permitted in their country.

The policy not only prevents thousands of people from accessing legal abortion services, but it has a chilling effect on NGOs working in reproductive health. Health-care providers are shunned, clinics close, and more women and girls die from unsafe abortion.

The implementation of the GGR will be bolstered by the U.S. rejoining the Geneva Consensus Declaration on Promoting Women’s Health and Strengthening the Family (GCD), a non-binding manifesto designed by Valerie Huber, an anti-abortion advocate and contributor to Project 2025, during her tenure in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under the Trump administration.

The GCD was launched at the end of 2020 and brings together a global coalition of anti-rights governments that oppose sexual and reproductive health and rights and LGBTQ+ rights, while also working to subvert multilateral governance.

These actions will compound the harms of the 1973 Helms Amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act, which prohibits the use of any U.S. funds “to pay for the performance of abortions as a method of family planning or to motivate or coerce any person to practice abortions.” These two U.S. policies plague abortion care in countries receiving U.S. foreign assistance. The U.S. is blocking foreign governments’ ability to care for their citizens, and stripping people outside the U.S. of the rights and health care they are legally entitled to where they live.

And to top it off, Trump rescinded actions put in place during the Biden Administration that defined abortion as health care and attempted to expand access, thereby strengthening the existing Hyde Amendment, which bars federal funds for abortion in the U.S.

“These actions disproportionately affect women, girls, and LGBTQ+ individuals, exacerbating gender and economic disparities in the U.S. and abroad,” says Kumar. “Ultimately, millions of people will suffer because they are unable to get the reproductive health care they so desperately need.”

Ipas condemns this assault on human rights and reproductive freedom. While Ipas has never received any funding from the U.S. government, we work with many local partners who do. We stand in solidarity with them, and with all who are affected by harmful U.S. policies. We are as committed as ever to our mission, and to a future where every person has the reproductive health care they need, and the right and ability to determine their own future.