US Retakes Control of Anti-Abortion Pact, Argentina Signs On Within Days

The United States has taken back the reins of a controversial international anti-abortion coalition, and within days a major Latin American nation signed on. On August 12, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the U.S. had assumed the secretariat of the Geneva Consensus Declaration from Hungary, housing the office inside HHS's Office of Global Affairs.

The move, detailed in a joint statement from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, restores Washington to a leadership role it first held when the declaration was signed on October 22, 2020, by representatives from 34 countries during the first Trump administration, co-sponsored by the United States, Brazil, Egypt, Hungary, Indonesia, and Uganda, according to the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. President Donald Trump rejoined the declaration after reentering the White House, and Hungary had assumed leadership of the coalition in the interim, according to reporting by the Denver Gazette.

Just days after the handoff, Argentina under President Javier Milei became the first nation to join the declaration under the new U.S. secretariat, pushing total membership past 40 countries representing nearly 1.5 billion people, per Health Policy Watch. The declaration is a nonbinding political declaration that requires no signatory to change its own laws, according to the Denver Gazette's reporting, and it addresses issues including abortion while affirming what it calls nations' sovereign right to determine their own laws and policies.

A Whipsaw Between Administrations

The declaration states that abortion policy should be determined at the national or local level through each country's legislative process, and that abortion should not be promoted as a method of family planning. It also includes language on protecting human life, recognizing the family as foundational to society, and promoting women's health, per the Denver Gazette. The document was drafted during Trump's first administration and established by Valerie Huber along with Brazil, Egypt, Hungary, Indonesia, and Uganda.

Huber, a former Trump administration official who served as U.S. special representative for global women's health and now leads the Institute for Women's Health, has argued that countries should develop policies they own rather than policies imposed from abroad. If something is forced on a country, she said, they may do it under duress. She has said the declaration is designed to address both sovereignty and human rights, and has rejected the idea that coalition membership endorses every policy of every member government.

The coalition's fate has swung sharply with presidential politics. The Biden administration withdrew the United States from the Geneva Consensus Declaration and said, per that administration, that it undermines United Nations multilateral efforts to advance gender equality. During Universal Periodic Reviews at the U.N. in late 2023, the Biden administration's U.S. Mission to International Organizations actively urged signatory countries, including Burkina Faso and Benin, to formally withdraw from the declaration, according to the House Oversight Committee. Huber has said the declaration cannot end when Trump leaves office, and has warned that the policy will end when pressure leaves if countries do not take ownership of it themselves — arguing it should endure beyond Trump or any one political party.

Billions in Foreign Aid Now Tied to the Policy

The diplomatic shift has been paired with sweeping financial leverage. On January 27, the Trump administration issued rules expanding Mexico City Policy restrictions under a framework called Promoting Human Flourishing in Foreign Assistance, subjecting nearly $40 billion in annual non-military U.S. foreign aid to prohibitions on funding abortion, diversity initiatives, or gender ideology, according to KFF.

State Department cost estimates from early 2026 found that roughly 2,500 foreign aid recipient organizations must spend an average of $42,033 in one-time familiarization expenses and $115,153 in ongoing annual compliance costs to meet the expanded restrictions, per Devex. Congressional Republicans are now moving to make those rules permanent: on June 23, Senators Ted Budd and Jim Risch introduced the Promoting Human Flourishing in Foreign Assistance Act to write the restrictions on abortion, DEI, and gender ideology permanently into federal statute, according to the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.

Democrats have pushed back. In April, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Jeanne Shaheen and House Democrats introduced bicameral counter-legislation aimed at overturning the administration's expanded global gag rule and restoring unrestricted humanitarian aid, according to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's Democratic staff.

Criticism Over Signatory Nations and Human Rights

The declaration's roster of signatories has drawn scrutiny. Its members include Iraq, South Sudan, and Saudi Arabia, per the Denver Gazette's reporting, and a May analysis found that Freedom House classifies more than half of the declaration's signatory governments as authoritarian regimes that routinely restrict civil liberties and democratic rights, according to Health Policy Watch.

Doctors Without Borders has criticized the Geneva Consensus Declaration for distorting international agreements on health and human rights, saying the declaration rationalizes restrictions on patient-centered sexual and reproductive health services. The organization's position stands in direct contrast to the framing offered by Huber and the administration, which casts the coalition as a defense of national sovereignty rather than an attack on health access.

The declaration operates through multilateral negotiations at the United Nations and other international organizations, part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to reconsider the U.S. relationship with international bodies and restructure foreign assistance around an America First position. In August, the Institute for Women's Health announced it would host the sixth annual Geneva Consensus Declaration commemoration on Capitol Hill, bringing together U.S. lawmakers and international diplomats from more than 40 signatory nations, according to Health Policy Watch.