9. Agency for International Development · Notable
Remove references to abortion and reproductive rights from USAID materials
Printed page 259 9. Agency for International Development
“It should also remove references to “abortion,” “reproductive health,” and “sexual and reproductive rights” and controversial sexual education materials.”
What has happened
- Partially done
Two award-term rules now reach the material the Quote names. Protecting Life in Foreign Assistance bars recipients from providing advice or referrals for abortion as a method of family planning, from conducting public-information campaigns about it, and from "[u]sing or teaching sex education materials (including books, curricula, media, etc.) that promote abortion as a method of family planning"; Combating Gender Ideology in Foreign Assistance bars sex education materials that include gender ideology. USAID's own publications went with the agency. The sweep is not documented as complete: the FY2026 act still funds voluntary family planning projects and describes them in exactly the terms the Quote wants removed, and no allowlisted inventory of withdrawn materials exists.
- State Department final rule: Protecting Life in Foreign Assistance (2 CFR part 602)
- State Department final rule: Combating Gender Ideology in Foreign Assistance (2 CFR part 603)
- Public Law 119-75 - Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026 (Division F, National Security, Department of State, and Related Programs)
- Attempted
The Mexico City Policy memorandum reinstated the 2017 policy and directed the Secretary of State to ensure that United States taxpayer dollars do not fund organizations or programs supporting abortion, but it addressed funding rather than the language of agency materials.
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
- Open-ended “all X” ask leveled partial on the rule for such asks (a directive plus at least one documented implementing action is partial), on the same reading as #666.
- Action
- eliminate
- Object
- References to abortion and reproductive rights in USAID materials
- ID
- 667