This incoherence makes it hard for foreign governments to make sense of the administration’s intentions, and it means that almost none of Washington’s foreign policy camps feel very happy right now. I say almost because there is one group that’s consistently and effectively—if quietly—pushing its foreign policy agenda in Donald Trump’s Washington: evangelical Christians.
Politico reported late last month that the State Department is launching a new “Commission on Unalienable Rights” to advise Pompeo and provide “fresh thinking about human rights discourse where such discourse has departed from our nation’s founding principles of natural law and natural rights.” Details about the panel are still sketchy—and there’s certainly room for “fresh thinking about human rights discourse”—but human rights activists fear that in this context, “natural” means “God-given” and could entail providing less support for programs promoting reproductive rights and protections for LGBTQ people. The concept note outlining the commission was written by Robert George, a Princeton professor and co-founder of the anti-gay National Organization for Marriage.
The influence of evangelical priorities is already spreading through the Trump administration’s diplomacy. In April, the U.S. threatened to veto a U.N. resolution condemning the use of rape as a weapon of war because of its language on reproductive and sexual health, which Trump officials felt normalized sexual activity and condoned abortion. The administration succeeded in moving Germany, the resolution’s sponsor, to water down that language. According to reporting by Foreign Policy, American instruction to push back on the resolution came via a cable from Pompeo’s office.
In his first week in office, Trump reauthorized the Mexico City Policy, also known as the global gag rule, a Reagan-era rule that blocks foreign nongovernmental organizations that provide abortion counseling or referrals from receiving U.S. funding. (American funds were already barred from being used to carry out abortions.) The rule was rescinded under Bill Clinton and Barack Obama and restored under George W. Bush, and any Republican administration probably would have restored it, too, but Trump has dramatically expanded it. Originally applying to just family planning funds, the rule now applies to all U.S. health aid, affecting nearly $8.8 billion in funds. In March of this year, Pompeo announced a further expansion of the policy, withholding funding from NGOs that give money to other groups that provide abortions.
