Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the "vast majority" of groups that partner with the U.S. have agreed to comply with the policy so far, and cast the latest decision as being rooted in compassion. "We're talking about human lives," he said. | Sait Serkan Gurbuz/AP Photo White House Trump beefs up funding ban aimed at abortion providers overseas

The Trump administration is strengthening the so-called "Mexico City policy" that bars U.S. aid to groups that provide or promote abortion overseas.

It’s also warning that it will more strictly enforce a federal statute aimed at preventing abortions abroad.


President Donald Trump has already expanded the Mexico City policy well beyond any of his Republican predecessors. On Tuesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the policy is being further modified so that the United States will no longer financially support groups around the world that help other organizations that support or promote abortion.

"We will refuse to provide assistance to foreign NGOs that give financial support to other foreign groups in the global abortion industry,” Pompeo said.

He said the "vast majority" of groups that partner with the U.S. have agreed to comply with the policy so far, and cast the latest decision as being rooted in compassion. "We're talking about human lives," he said.

Anti-abortion advocates immediately hailed Pompeo's announcement, the latest in a series of State Department efforts to curb abortion.

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"March for Life is grateful to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for his announcement today that the Department will more fully implement the Protecting Life in Global Health Policy," said Jeanne Mancini, the group's president.

But critics, who dub the policy the "global gag rule," argue that it undermines organizations who provide a range of services well beyond abortion, including health care for would-be mothers.

"Further expanding the global gag rule puts international organizations in an impossible position: provide women the full scope of reproductive health care services or deny critical funding that saves lives," said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.). "That is unconscionable."

Jen Kates, director of global health policy for the Kaiser Family Foundation, said that her organization was still reviewing how Pompeo's announcement would reduce abortion access. The Trump administration's earlier expansion of the Mexico City policy already has affected a "significant amount of funding and a large number of NGOs," she said.

Pompeo also took aim at the Organization of American States, saying that the United States would reduce its contribution to the OAS and include new prohibitions in foreign assistance agreements.

Pompeo cited a longstanding U.S. law, the 1981 Siljander amendment, which requires that no U.S. funds appropriated under the Foreign Operations Appropriations Act may be used to "lobby for or against abortion."

"The institutions of the OAS should be focused on addressing crises in Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela — not in advancing the pro-abortion cause," Pompeo said. He added that the funding reduction would be equivalent to "the estimated U.S. share of possible OAS expenditures on these abortion-related activities."

The State Department did not immediately respond to a request to clarify what prompted the decision to target the OAS or which sections within the organization would be affected.

Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma and other Republicans urged Pompeo in December 2018 to halt funding to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Inter-American Commission on Women (Comisión Interamericana sobre la Mujer - CIM) because those OAS-funded groups have promoted abortion across Latin America.