By: Alicia Casciano
Published: May 11, 2026
In January 2017, President Trump reinstated the Mexico City Policy.[1] In January 2021, it was revoked with President Biden’s Presidential Memorandum Protecting Women’s Health at Home and Abroad.[2] On January 24, 2025, President Trump revoked the Presidential Memorandum to reinstate the Mexico City Policy, also known as the “Global Gag Rule.”[3] So, why the back and forth? The Global Gag Rule further restricts the Helms Amendment by blocking nongovernmental organizations (“NGOs”) that receive United States (“U.S.”) global health assistance funds from promoting abortion as a form of family planning,[4] even if they are using non-U.S. funds to do so.[5] As a non-State Party to CEDAW, to remain in compliance with its own domestic law, the United States must amend its new VA policy to allow for the exceptions outlined in the Hyde Amendment.
On the domestic front, the Hyde Amendment prohibits the use of U.S. federal funds for elective abortions, excluding those pertaining to pregnancies that resulted from rape, incest, or that pose a life-threatening danger to the mother.[6] The Hyde Amendment applies to any healthcare operation utilizing federal funds—including the Department of Veterans Affairs (“VA”).[7] On December 18, 2025, the Trump Administration quietly repealed abortion services at all VA facilities;[8] but, doesn’t the Hyde Amendment already prohibit federally funded abortion? Yes, but this new VA policy bans abortion in nearly all cases—including in cases of rape and incest—which the Hyde Amendment says are exceptions to the federal funding restriction on abortion.[9]
After the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022,[10] the Office of Legal Counsel uncharacteristically advised the VA that it was authorized, under federal law, to use federal funds to provide abortions for any reason, including abortion counseling.[11] However, in August 2025, the VA proposed a new policy to reinstate the pre-2022 exclusion of abortion services from their medical benefits package.[12] Then, in December 2025, the Office of Legal Counsel retracted their earlier stance and decided that the VA did not have statutory authority to provide abortion services.[13] Subsequently, the VA adopted its proposed rule, which went into effect on January 30, 2026.[14] This means that female veterans are now confronted with the most restrictive abortion program across federal agencies.[15] In an Administration utilizing servicemembers in so many capacities,[16] protecting veterans should be at the forefront of its agenda, but this latest policy demonstrates how our female veterans are offered one of the most discriminatory reproductive health care plans in the United States.
How does all of this tie together? The re-establishment of the Global Gag Rule and the pre-2022 VA policy demonstrate how the U.S. government is discretely repealing nearly all abortion services in an attempt to dismantle women’s reproductive healthcare writ large.
The reinstatement of the Global Gag Rule in the United States affects women’s rights internationally. According to the founder of the European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual and Reproductive Rights, “European Christian-right organizations[, like those in the Catholic State of Poland,] are now following their American peers in ‘judiciary infiltration,’ training lawyers and helping place them within the court system.”[17] Consequently, since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Europeans fear whether their countries will follow the United States’ lead and rollback abortion access.[18] The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (“CEDAW”) is an international treaty that established the legal framework to address violence against women.[19] As an example, Poland, who has both signed and ratified CEDAW, was found to be committing international human rights crimes for its lack of abortion access in 2024.[20] Abortions are illegal in Poland, except for in cases when the woman is in mortal danger or the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.[21] Unlike Poland, the United States is not a State Party to CEDAW, [22] but would be similarly found to be violating human rights as a result of repealing abortion care funding and access in direct violation of the Hyde Amendment.
Both domestically and internationally, the Trump Administration has demonstrated that it does not prioritize access to abortion care. The Hyde Amendment explicitly says women should have access to abortion services in the case of rape and incest; now, U.S. female veterans are being deprived of those services and their right to reproductive choice.[23] Under the Global Gag Rule, 70 million fewer condoms were distributed and there have been 20,000 maternal deaths.[24] If Poland has committed international human rights violations for failing to provide women access to abortion care, even though it is permitted in cases of rape or incest, then so has the United States for no longer even offering its female veterans access to this case in these circumstances.[25] As a non-State Party to CEDAW, to remain in compliance with its own domestic law, the United States must amend its new VA policy to allow for the exceptions outlined in the Hyde Amendment. After all, every woman—veteran or not—should have access to fundamental healthcare, including their international human right to abortion services in cases of rape, incest, and mortal danger.
[1] The Mexico City Policy, 82 Fed. Reg. 8495 (Jan. 23, 2017).
[2] Memorandum for the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Administrator of the United States for International Development, The White House (Jan. 24, 2025), https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/memorandum-for-the-secretary-of-state-the-secretary-of-defense-the-secretary-of-health-and-human-services-the-administrator-of-the-united-states-for-international-development/.
[3] Id.
[4] See Luisa Blanchfield, Cong. Rsch. Serv., IF12235, Abortion Funding Restrictions in Foreign Assistance Legislation 1 (2024) (noting that the Helms Amendment effects foreign affairs by prohibiting the use of U.S. federal funds by non-U.S. NGOs for abortion services as a method of family planning).
[5] See Anna Diamond, Trump Strikes at Abortion With a Revived Foreign-Aid Rule, The Atlantic (Jan. 23, 2017), https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/01/mexico-city-policy/514010/ (noting that the promotion of abortion includes providing abortion services, referrals, or information to patients); Factsheet: The Global Gag Rule and Human Rights, Ctr. for Reprod. Rts., at 1, https://reproductiverights.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Global-Gag-Rule_Fact-Sheet_1-27-25.pdf.
[6] Enforcing the Hyde Amendment, 90 Fed. Reg. 8751 (Jan. 24, 2025); see also Edward C. Liu & Wen W. Shen, Cong. Rsch. Serv., IF12167, The Hyde Amendment: An Overview 1 (2022) (identifying that covered U.S. federal funds usually includes annual appropriations in the Department of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Bill, and any additional federal trust funds that receive transfer of such appropriations.).
[7] 172 Cong. Rec. S200 (daily ed. Jan. 14, 2026) (statement of James Lankford, Sen. from Okla.).
[8] Trump-Vance Administration Bans Abortion Care and Counseling for Veterans, Nat’l Women’s L. Ctr. (Dec. 23, 2025), https://nwlc.org/press-release/82440/ [hereinafter VA Abortion Ban].
[9] Reproductive Health Services, 90 Fed. Reg. 61,311 (Dec. 31, 2025).
[10] See generally Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Org., 597 U.S. 231 (2022) (holding that Roe v. Wade (1973) must be overruled).
[11] Reconsidering the Authority of the Department of Veterans Affairs to Provide Abortion Services, 49 Op. O.L.C. 1, 1 (Dec. 18, 2025) [hereinafter DOJ Opinion].
[12] Id. (citing Reproductive Health Services, 90 Fed. Reg. 36,415 (Aug. 4, 2025)).
[13] Id. at 12-13.
[14] Reproductive Health Services, 90 Fed. Reg. at 61,310.
[15] VA Abortion Ban, supra note 8.
[16] Referencing examples such as the deployment of the National Guard in multiple U.S. cities, the offensive deployment in the Caribbean Sea and Venezuela, and the offensive deployment in Iran.
[17] Akmaljon Akhmedjonov, Bernadeta Barokova & Yijing Chen et al., Europe’s Growing Abortion Nightmare, POLITICO (July 1, 2023, at 4:01 AM CT), https://www.politico.eu/article/europes-growing-abortion-nightmare/.
[18] Vanessa Gera, Jill Lawless & Nicole Winfield et al., As France Guarantees the Right to Abortion, Other European Countries Look to Expand Access, AP News (Mar. 4, 2024, at 7:45 PM ET), https://apnews.com/article/europe-abortion-rights-constitution-france-f65ef0c520bfbb43d4c201cfc443ca54.
[19] The Istanbul Convention and the CEDAW framework: A comparison of measures to prevent and combat violence against women, Council of Europe, at 1, https://rm.coe.int/168059aa28.
[20] See Poland Violated Women’s Rights By Unduly Restricting Access to Abortion, UN Committee Finds, OHCHR (Aug. 26, 2024), https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/08/poland-violated-womens-rights-unduly-restricting-access-abortion-un (holding that “[t]he situation in Poland constitutes gender-based violence against women and may rise to the level of torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment. . .”).
[21] Gera, Lawless & Winfield et al., supra note 18.
[22] Status of Treaties, UN Treaty Collection (last updated Jan. 1, 2026, at 12:16:05 AM ET), https://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=IV-8&chapter=4&clang=_en.
[23] See Skye Wheeler, US to Cut Veterans’ Abortion Access, Hum. Rts. Watch (Jan. 26, 2026, at 6:00 AM ET), https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/01/26/us-to-cut-veterans-abortion-access (noting that the VA’s new policy limits services to those deemed “medically necessary” while disregarding that abortion care is often medically necessary); Sexual & Reproductive Rights, Amnesty Int’l (last updated Mar. 7, 2025), https://www.amnestyusa.org/issues/gender-sexuality/sexual-reproductive-rights/.
[24] See Her Health, Her Rights, Amnesty Int’l, https://globalgag.org/ (last visited Jan. 25, 2026) (noting that the United States historically has been a global leader in supporting access to contraception to women around the world); see, e.g., USAID.gov (noting that as of February 23, 2025, the website no longer provides any information or resources).
[25] Akhmedjonov, Barokova & Chen et al., supra note 17.