Three bishops who chair committees of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) issued a joint statement Jan. 30 welcoming the Trump administration’s recent expansion of the Mexico City Policy, which protects taxpayer dollars from being used to fund abortion overseas.
The statement was signed by Bishop Edward J. Burns of the Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth, Bishop Daniel E. Thomas of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities, and Bishop A. Elias Zaidan of the Committee on International Justice and Peace. The bishops underscored the moral imperative of directing U.S. aid toward causes that uphold human life and dignity.
“God entrusts us with a responsibility to share our blessings to help preserve the lives and dignity of our brothers and sisters in need,” they wrote. “We support robust funding for authentic lifesaving and life-affirming foreign assistance and applaud new policies that prevent taxpayer dollars from going to organizations that engage in ideological colonization and promote abortion or gender ideology overseas.”
The State Department announced the new policy, titled the Promoting Human Flourishing in Foreign Assistance Policy, on Jan. 27. The measure expands the Mexico City Policy to restrict U.S. funding for global programs that advocate for gender ideology and support diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives deemed unlawful. State Department officials say it applies to more than $30 billion in annual U.S. global health assistance.
The bishops also urged officials to avoid doing any unintended harm to vulnerable populations through the enactment of the new measures.
“We also call for the implementation of any related policies to be carried out in a manner that recognizes the inherent dignity of every human person and does not harm those who are racially or ethnically marginalized,” the bishops wrote.