Responding to the Trump administration’s completion of the United States’ withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO) and its announcement of a sweeping expansion of the Global Gag Rule, Sam Zarifi, JD, LLM, executive director of Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), said:
“The United States is dismantling global public health institutions and partnerships that are critical to preventing the death and suffering of millions of people around the world each year. Not only is this morally misguided; it is also profoundly unwise. Health threats know no borders; global cooperation is essential to safeguarding everyone, including Americans, from infectious disease and other public health risks, and strong global health systems are a cornerstone of global peace, stability, and security.”
The United States was among the first countries to join the WHO at its founding in 1948 and has long been its largest financial contributor, helping to build the world’s leading system for tracking and responding to infectious diseases. On the first day of his second term, President Trump announced his intention to withdraw from the specialized United Nations agency by signing an executive order. The withdrawal was formally completed on January 22, 2026.
The Mexico City Policy (regularly referred to as the Global Gag Rule because it prohibits health care providers from discussing abortion with patients) was first established under President Reagan in 1984 and has been intermittently reinstated under Republican administrations, including by President Trump in his first term. Today’s changes will place further restrictions on organizations receiving U.S. nonmilitary foreign assistance funds, limiting their ability to provide abortion and gender-affirming care and to support DEI initiatives. These actions will jeopardize critical institutions that promote and protect global health, creating serious risks to lives and health worldwide.
These measures come as communities are already facing the devastating impacts of one year of U.S. global health cuts – through the destruction of USAID and disruptions to programs like PEPFAR. PHR and partners have documented the gendered harm and heightened risks for women and girls and people of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities that result from the Trump administration’s broad foreign aid restrictions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. Expanding these restrictions will further deepen the suffering.
Learn more about PHR’s work on the impact of U.S. global health aid cuts here.
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) is a New York-based advocacy organization that uses science and medicine to prevent mass atrocities and severe human rights violations. Learn more here.