WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Donald Trump on Friday used his executive authority to restore U.S. participation in two international anti-abortion pacts, including one that cuts off U.S. family planning funds for foreign organizations if they provide or promote abortions.
Trump reinstated the Mexico City Policy, which opponents call the "global gag rule" because they say it silences abortion advocates. Established by former President Ronald Reagan in 1984, it has been rescinded by each Democratic president since then and reinstated when a Republican returns to the White House.
Abortion is a divisive issue in U.S. politics and was a major issue in the 2024 campaign won by Trump. In 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled to eliminate a nationwide right to abortion, leaving abortion laws to each of the 50 states.
Trump said in his memorandum on Friday he was directing Secretary of State Marco Rubio to implement the Mexico City Policy "to ensure that U.S. taxpayer dollars do not fund organizations or programs that support or participate in the management of a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization."
Democrats and abortion rights advocates contend the rule disrupts other forms of healthcare access and blocks nongovernmental organizations abroad from receiving U.S. funds, even if they use their own money on abortion care.
Janeen Madan Keller, a policy fellow at the Center for Global Development, said research showed that the "gag order" has led to an increase in unwanted pregnancies and abortions, counter to its intended impact.
"Broadly speaking these decisions are going to really set the United States back in advancing gender equality," Madan Keller said, in part by limiting the ability of women and girls to complete school and enter the workforce.
Rubio also announced on Friday the United States was rejoining the Geneva Consensus Declaration, which critics say aims to limit abortion access for millions of women and girls around the world.
The declaration was co-sponsored by the United States, Brazil, Uganda, Egypt, Hungary and Indonesia in 2020, when Trump was in office during his first term. It now has more than 35 signatories.
The previous Trump administration said the declaration sought better healthcare for women and the preservation of human life, while also strengthening family as the foundational unit of society and protecting each nation's sovereignty.
The State Department said on Friday that one of the four objectives of the pact was to "protect life at all stages."
Trump also issued an executive order related to the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits the use of federal funds to pay for abortion coverage in the United States, and rescinded two of predecessor Joe Biden's executive orders intending to preserve reproductive health services after the Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade ruling on abortion.
"While this EO (executive order) has no immediate impact, it is an indication of the Trump administration doubling down on denying abortion access to people with low incomes," the women's healthcare provider Planned Parenthood said in a statement.