Nation Expands Foreign Aid Restrictions to Include Gender Programs

The foreign ministry is reportedly finalizing an expansion of a decades-old policy that will bar the nation’s international assistance from subsidizing abortion services and, in what observers describe as a significant broadening, from supporting what the current administration terms gender and diversity programs.

The policy in question dates back to the 1980s, when a previous conservative leader first introduced conditions on foreign aid requiring recipient organizations to certify they would not provide or promote abortion as a method of family planning. The rule was initially unveiled at a United Nations population conference to prevent the country’s foreign assistance from being used to promote abortion services in other nations.

According to sources familiar with the matter, the foreign ministry is expected to finalize three rules expanding the policy to restrict foreign assistance from subsidizing not only abortion as a method of family planning, but also what the administration characterizes as gender and diversity ideology.

Under previous iterations of the policy, funding was barred from supporting organizations that provide or promote abortion as a method of family planning. During the current leader’s previous term in office, the policy was reportedly expanded to cover roughly $8 billion in global health assistance. The newly finalized rules allegedly go further, covering all nonmilitary foreign assistance totaling more than $30 billion.

Foreign nongovernmental organizations and international bodies receiving the nation’s assistance will reportedly be required to certify that they do not provide or promote abortion as a method of family planning, promote what the administration calls “gender ideology,” advance “discriminatory equity ideology,” or engage in what officials term unlawful diversity-related discrimination, according to the policy framework.

Domestic organizations operating overseas will face similar certification requirements, sources indicate.

The policy has historically followed partisan lines, with liberal administrations typically rescinding the rule and conservative administrations reinstating it. The previous liberal leader rescinded the policy days after taking office, defending the decision by stating that such conditions “undermine the [nation’s] efforts to advance gender equality globally by restricting our ability to support women’s health and programs that prevent and respond to gender-based violence.”

Critics have long referred to the policy as a “global gag rule,” arguing that it effectively restricts the speech and advocacy of international organizations receiving the country’s aid.

The expected new rules coincide with an annual demonstration in the capital that attracts thousands of conservative activists to march through the streets advocating for restrictions on abortion access. The current deputy leader is scheduled to address the gathering.

The current head of state has repeatedly promoted the policy, previously stating that his administration was working “to protect the unborn” by reinstating the restrictions. The addition of gender and diversity programs to the framework follows what observers describe as the administration’s broader effort to roll back federal policies and funding that it characterizes as advancing progressive social ideology.

“We’ve ended the tyranny of so-called diversity, equity and inclusion policies all across the entire federal government,” the leader reportedly declared recently, adding that the country “will be woke no longer.”