Amnesty International’s Senior Director for Research, Advocacy Policy & Campaigns, Erika Guevara-Rosas, said: “The expansion of the Global Gag Rule is an assault on human rights. By targeting organizations that support diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and recognize gender diversity, the Trump administration is deliberately deepening inequality and putting the lives of millions around the world at risk.
“The Global Gag Rule is a disastrous and deadly US policy. It strangles healthcare systems, censors information and violates the rights to health, information, and free expression. It forces frontline providers and many struggling organizations that depend on US funding into an impossible choice: limit essential healthcare for the most vulnerable populations or shut their doors.
“Doubling down on this policy is cruel, reckless and ideologically driven. Expanding it to international and US-based organizations will impact the poorest and marginalized first and hardest, denying people the chance to live full, healthy, autonomous lives where they are able to access rights and services. It is further proof of this US administration’s blatant disregard for international law, universal rights, and the rules-based international order.”
IPPF said: “The expanded policy is no longer limited to global health funding but weaponizes all non-military U.S. foreign assistance. This now includes diversity, equity and inclusion policies, and gender identity rights, recast as threats and condemned as “radical gender ideologies that prey on our children” by JD Vance at today’s March for Life, giving fuel to a populist politics that institutionalises fear through a culture of misinformation that is yet again entrenched in official policy by the Trump administration. The Trump Administration attempts to block foreign assistance funding to U.S. organizations, other governments, and multilateral institutions who engage in human rights. This is yet another attack on national sovereignty and colonial intervention through the curtailing of sexual and reproductive rights.
“This is a clear and deliberate strategy to destabilise democracies, undermine human rights, and prioritise the commercial and political interests of a few powerful industries over the health and freedoms of millions.
“In an age of Epstein scandals and hocus pocus designed to undermine science and medicine, the Trump Administration has read the room. He knows his obsession with women’s bodies is viewed cynically, so he has utilised the man-made panic funded by the fossil fuel industry to shift the focus of his policy against trans people. The Global Gag rule is hate-bait designed to keep his donors happy and export more division to countries reliant on US aid, in the absence of economic justice.” said Mina Barling, IPPF’s Global Director of External Relations. “We stand in solidarity with women and trans people in all their diversity. We demand debt relief, and we support national sovereignty. We want to see a new global health architecture that is less susceptible to the whims of American politicians.”
IPPF remains unwavering. We will continue to defend sexual and reproductive rights and justice for all, including the right to abortion, and gender affirming care. We stand with our partners resisting this continuation of American imperialism. We call on the global community to protect rights in law and practice: repeal regressive laws; decriminalise abortion and offer care for all.
Note
The Global Gag Rule already prevents foreign groups receiving U.S. global health funding from providing or promoting abortion, even if those programmes are paid for with other sources of finance.
SOURCES: Erika Guevara-Rosas, Senior Director for Research, Advocacy Policy & Campaigns, Amnesty USA. Text + photo, 26 January 2026. IPPF, 23 January 2026.