WASHINGTON — A bipartisan pair of senators are joining forces in a push to permanently repeal an abortion-related federal policy just reinstated by President Donald Trump.
The policy, known colloquially as the Mexico City Policy and by those against it as the global gag rule, forbids U.S. federal health aid from going to non-governmental organizations around the world that provide any services, ranging from performing them to providing information on them, related to abortion. It has flipped between being repealed and reinstated half a dozen times since its original enactment.
The legislation introduced by Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, this week seeks to do away with the rule for good, allowing international organizations that receive funds from the U.S. federal government to continue to operate and provide legal abortion services with their own money.
The bill, called the Global Health, Empowerment and Rights (HER) Act, would also look to expand women’s access to health programs around the globe.
“Women around the world, regardless of their financial status or geographic location, deserve access to comprehensive healthcare, and a reinstatement of the Global Gag Rule jeopardizes that access,” Murkowski said in a statement.
In a press release announcing the legislation, the senators also argued the rule, which they referred to as “ill-conceived” and “harmful,” forces consequential health programs around the world to choose between cutting services provided in order to keep receiving U.S. funding or taking a budget cut to continue their full-scope of offerings.
“We have made great strides towards ending preventable maternal and child deaths, reducing mother-to-child transmission of HIV and combating gender-based violence,” Shaheen said. “The Global Gag Rule puts that progress at risk.”
The pair of senators also introduced the bill in 2023 and were joined by Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine to introduce similar legislation three times before that.
This year’s push has 41 co-sponsors (all Democrats) in the Senate and a companion bill in the House.
Days after taking office for a second time last week, the White House announced that Trump was reinstating the law, revoking his predecessor, former President Joe Biden’s order to do away with it.
“I further direct the Secretary of State to take all necessary actions, to the extent permitted by law, 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,” the memorandum announcing the decision read.
The policy has been reinstated and repealed every time the party in control of the White House has changed since former President Ronald Reagan put it in place in 1984.
Abortion has been a sticky issue for Trump following the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022. He appointed three of the Supreme Court justices who ruled in favor of reversing the more than 50-year-old constitutional right to an abortion.
On the campaign trail, he often touted his role in Roe’s overturning but also pledged to leave the issue up to states and not sign a national abortion ban should one make it to his desk as president.
His decision to reinstate the Mexico City policy came amid a series of steps he took last week to limit abortion, including enforcing the Hyde Amendment, which bans the use of government funds in federal health programs like Medicaid for most abortions.
Correction: An earlier version of this story inaccurately identified Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.