Tag: taxpayer

  • ‘Catastrophic results’: Union, taxpayer groups take stab at DOGE in latest lawsuit over IRS data access

    ‘Catastrophic results’: Union, taxpayer groups take stab at DOGE in latest lawsuit over IRS data access

    In a lawsuit filed on Monday, multiple taxpayer and union groups alleged Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) violated multiple laws in its quest to unearth and eliminate wasteful government spending.

    The groups claim DOGE launched a “sweeping campaign to access highly-sensitive information systems” and violated laws that limit executive power, protect civil servants, and guard citizens’ data held by the government.

    The agency, which was created by an executive order earlier this year, remains a temporary organization within the White House and is tasked with optimizing the federal government, streamlining operations, and slashing spending in just 18 months.

    U.S. President Donald Trump is joined by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, and his son, X Musk, during an executive order signing in the Oval Office at the White House on February 11, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

    LAWSUIT TRACKER: NEW RESISTANCE BATTLING TRUMP’S SECOND TERM THROUGH ONSLAUGHT OF LAWSUITS TAKING AIM AT EOS

    Noting recent DOGE action at the Treasury, Labor, Education and Health departments, as well as at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Office of Personnel Management and Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the suit alleges DOGE’s access to sensitive information systems “lacks statutory authority.”

    Specifically, it claims DOGE violated the Tax Reform Act, Privacy Act and Administrative Procedures Act.

    “The results have already been catastrophic,” according to the suit.

    DOGE protesters march down the street.

    About 100 DOGE protesters gathered, fearing DOGE would cut the workforce at the Bureau of Fiscal Service. (Fox News Digital)

    Without the court’s intervention, the groups said they were concerned about DOGE having access to sensitive information including social security numbers, individuals’ finances, and bank account information.

    The lawsuit also asserted DOGE will have access to confidential business information, tax records and IRS investigations, which “could include investigations or reports pertaining to Mr. [Elon] Musk’s businesses or those of his competitors.”

    “No other business owner on the planet has acces to this kind of information on his competitors, and for good reason,” lawyers wrote in the suit.

    Musk in DC

    Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Co-Chair of the newly announced Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), arrives on Capitol Hill on December 05, 2024 in Washington, DC. Musk and his Co-Chair, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy are meeting with lawmakers today about DOGE, a planned presidential advisory commission with the goal of cutting government spending and increasing efficiency in the federal workforce.  (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

    DOGE SCORES BIG COURT WIN, ALLOWED ACCESS DATA ON 3 FEDERAL AGENCIES

    The groups — the Center for Taxpaper Rights, Main Street Alliance, National Federation of Federal Employees, and Communications Workers of America — are seeking a temporary restraining order to maintain the status quo until the court has an opportunity to review DOGE and Musk’s actions.

    Following the review, plaintiffs asked the court to declare DOGE’s access unlawful, halt its use of IRS systems, order that information obtained illegally be deleted, and establish new security protections.

    The lawsuit was filed prior to a federal judge’s ruling on Tuesday to not block DOGE from accessing government data or firing federal employees. 

    Rally

    Demonstrators rally in support of federal workers outside of the Department of Health and Human Services, Friday, Feb. 14, in Washington.  (AP/Mark Schiefelbein)

    U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan rejected a request for a temporary restraining order, pointing to the absence of evidence showing the agency’s access caused “irreparable harm.”

    However, Chutkan did question what “appears to be the unchecked authority of an unelected individual,” referencing Musk.

    She also expressed concerns about DOGE’s accountability to Congress.

    ‘WASTEFUL AND DANGEROUS’: DOGE’S TOP FIVE MOST SHOCKING REVELATIONS

    WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 14: Protesters demonstrate in support of federal workers outside of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on February 14, 2025 in Washington, DC. Organizers held the protest to speak on the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cuts.

    Protesters demonstrate in support of federal workers outside of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Feb. 14, 2025 in Washington, DC. Organizers held the protest to speak on the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cuts. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

    Last week, more than a dozen Democratic state attorneys general sued to temporarily restrict DOGE’s access to federal data about government employees, citing concerns about Musk’s access and power.

    “There is no greater threat to democracy than the accumulation of state power in the hands of a single, unelected individual,” according to the lawsuit, filed by New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez.

    Attorneys general from Arizona, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington also signed onto the suit.

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    Fox News Digital’s Breanne Deppisch contributed to this report.

  • Education Department cuts 0M in taxpayer dollars for ‘divisive’ training programs

    Education Department cuts $600M in taxpayer dollars for ‘divisive’ training programs

    The Department of Education (DOED) is pulling the plug on the use of taxpayer dollars to fund “divisive” and “inappropriate” training programs for educators, announcing hundreds of millions in cuts as the Trump administration cleans house on “wasteful” spending within the federal government.

    On Monday, the DOED announced the cancelation of $600 million dollars in grants funding programs that teach educators “divisive ideologies” such as diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and the “instruction on White privilege and White supremacy.”

    The latest spending cut comes just days after the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk to cut government spending, announced the slashing of over $370 million in DEI training programs from the Education Department.

    The grants that were terminated included funding for training programs “requiring practitioners to take personal and institutional responsibility for systemic inequities (e.g., racism) and critically reassess their own practices,” according to the DOED.

    DOGE PUTS DEI ON CHOPPING BLOCK WITH TERMINATION OF OVER $370M IN EDUCATION DEPARTMENT GRANTS

    The Department of Education terminated $600 million in DEI funding. (Getty Images)

    Also slashed in the cost-cutting sweep was funding to one program that provided “spaces for critical reflection to help educators confront biases and have transformative conversations about equity,” and another that worked on “building historical and sociopolitical understandings of race and racism to interrupt racial marginalization and oppression of students in planning, instruction, relationship building, discipline and assessment.”

    DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION PROBING SOME VIRGINIA SCHOOL DISTRICTS OVER GENDER IDENTITY POLICIES

    “Less money on DEI nonsense means more money to make sure teachers know how to teach students to read! #MakeAmericaLiterateAgain,” Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice said in a post on X.

    The move also received a thumbs up from Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., chairwoman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, who expressed her support on social media.

    Department of Education Building.

    The Department of Education building. (iStock)

    According to the DOED, many of the grants also included teacher and staff recruiting strategies that were “implicitly and explicitly based on race.”

    “The Department of Education has canceled $600 million in ‘teacher training grants,’ which do little more than promote left-wing race and gender ideologies,” Chris Rufo, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, said of the announcement. “It’s time to shut it all down.”

    Elon Musk

    Elon Musk speaks during an event in the Oval Office with President Donald Trump at the White House on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (AP Images)

    President Donald Trump’s administration has made axing DEI programs in education a focal point of their efforts to reform the department, ordering all 50 state education departments last week to remove DEI policies within 14 days or risk losing federal funding.

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    The president has signaled his intention to eventually abolish the department during his term to allow individual states to make decisions about their own education departments.

  • DOGE’s access to critical IRS system containing taxpayer information is imminent

    DOGE’s access to critical IRS system containing taxpayer information is imminent

    The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk, will soon have access to an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) system that contains sensitive taxpayer information, Fox News has learned.

    DOGE has requested access to the IRS Integrated Data Retrieval System, which allows IRS workers to view taxpayer accounts.

    Harrison Fields, the White House principal deputy press secretary, told Fox News in a statement that access to this system is necessary to identify fraud and fix the system.

    “Waste, fraud, and abuse have been deeply entrenched in our broken system for far too long,” Fields said. “It takes direct access to the system to identify and fix it. DOGE will continue to shine a light on the fraud they uncover as the American people deserve to know what their government has been spending their hard-earned tax dollars on.”

    WHAT HAS DOGE CUT SO FAR?

    Elon Musk and President Donald Trump talk about DOGE’s efforts to investigate wasteful U.S. government spending from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 11, 2025. (JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)

    The IRS website states that the system allows workers “to have instantaneous visual access to certain taxpayer accounts.” Other functions of the system include “researching account information and requesting returns,” entering transactions and collection information, and “automatically generating notices, collection documents and other outputs.”

    IRS building, logo

    The Musk-led DOGE will soon have access to an IRS system that contains sensitive taxpayer information, Fox News learned Monday. (Samuel Corum/Bloomberg via Getty Images, File)

    Musk is leading DOGE to aggressively slash government waste when it comes to federal spending under President Donald Trump. It was created via executive order and is a temporary organization within the White House that will spend 18 months carrying out its mission.

    DOGE PUTS DEI ON CHOPPING BLOCK WITH TERMINATION OF OVER $370M IN EDUCATION DEPARTMENT GRANTS

    The group has faced criticism over its access to federal systems, including the Treasury Department’s payment system, as well as moves to cancel federal contracts and make cuts at various agencies. Attorneys general from 14 states are suing to block DOGE from accessing federal data, arguing Musk and Trump’s administration have engaged in illegal executive overreach.

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    The newly formed cost-cutting agency scored a win on Friday when a federal judge in Washington declined a request to temporarily block it from accessing sensitive data from the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

    Fox News Digital’s Michael Dorgan and Eric Revell contributed to this report.

  • Zeldin demands return of B in taxpayer money wasted by Biden administration

    Zeldin demands return of $20B in taxpayer money wasted by Biden administration

    The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Lee Zeldin said Wednesday that his team has located $20 billion in tax dollars that the Biden administration purposely wasted.

    “An extremely disturbing video circulated two months ago, featuring a Biden EPA political appointee talking about how they were ‘tossing gold bars off the Titanic,’ rushing to get billions of your tax dollars out the door before Inauguration Day,” Zeldin said in a video posted to X, citing another video from December. “The ‘gold bars’ were tax dollars and ‘tossing them off the Titanic’ meant the Biden administration knew they were wasting it.”

    Zeldin said the EPA has plans to recover the “gold bars” that were found “parked at an outside financial institution,” which he does not mention by name.

    He said that “this scheme was the first of its kind in EPA history, and it was purposefully designed to obligate all the money in a rush job with reduced oversight” before Inauguration Day.

    TRUMP TAPS FORMER NEW YORK REP LEE ZELDIN TO LEAD EPA

    Former Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., President Donald Trump’s pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency, appears before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Capitol Hill, Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

    Zeldin said “there is zero reason to suspect any wrongdoing by the bank,” but he thinks agreement with the institution “needs to be instantly terminated” and all the money should be immediately returned.

    He also said the EPA needs to reassume responsibility for all of these funds, adding that his team will “review every penny that has gone out the door.”

    THROUGH THE EPA, WE CAN PURSUE ENERGY DOMINANCE, LEE ZELDIN SAYS | FOX NEWS VIDEO

    epa hearing

    Former Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y. arrives at EPA confirmation hearing. (Fox News Digital/Charlie Creitz)

    “The days of irresponsibly shoveling boatloads of cash to far-left activist groups in the name of environmental justice and climate equity are over,” Zeldin said. “The American public deserves a more transparent and accountable government than what transpired these past four years.”

    He also said that he would be referring this matter to the inspector general’s office and that he would work with the Department of Justice to assist President Donald Trump in regaining control.

    2022 NYC governor election

    FILE – U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin, the Republican candidate for New York governor, participates in a debate against incumbent Democratic Gov. Kathy, on Oct. 25, 2022, at Pace University in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, Pool, File)

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    “Now we will get them back inside of control of government as we pursue next steps. As President Trump has vowed, we’re going to usher in a new Golden Age of American success for the citizens of every race, religion, color and creed,” Zeldin said at the end of the video.

    Elon Musk also commended Zeldin on X for an “awesome job” saving taxpayer money.

  • ‘Mr. Brexit’ advocates for UK DOGE over ‘complete waste’ of taxpayer money

    ‘Mr. Brexit’ advocates for UK DOGE over ‘complete waste’ of taxpayer money

    Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has dominated headlines during President Donald Trump’s second term. Nigel Farage, the Reform UK party leader who initiated Britain’s departure from the European Union, has been taking notes. 

    Farage posted a social media video on Tuesday proclaiming, “Britain needs its own DOGE!” He said it was the “first in a series” of videos that will highlight the misuse of British taxpayer money. 

    “Do you ever wonder where your taxes go, whether your money is being spent properly?” Farage asked. “Well, have a look at what’s come across my desk. Oh, you’ll like this. The environmental impact of filmmaking using Star Wars to improve sector sustainability practices. No, I’m not even making it up – over £200,000. Try this. The cultural legacies of the British Empire, classical music’s colonial history 1750-1900 – £1.2 million funded by U.K. Research and Innovation, a non-departmental government body.”

    Farage said Elon Musk’s DOGE investigations inspired him to reevaluate where British taxpayer money is going. Farage said programs, like studying the impact of Star Wars on the environment, are a waste of federal funds and keep workers “in jobs who don’t deserve them.”

    TRUMP SIGNS ORDER INSTRUCTING DOGE TO MASSIVELY CUT FEDERAL WORKFORCE

    Reform UK Party leader Nigel Farage attends Trump’s campaign rally at the Santander Arena on Nov. 4 in Reading, Pennsylvania. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

    “When you see what they’re doing in America, do you get the feeling we ought to be doing it here? This is all a complete waste of your taxpayer money. It’s keeping people in jobs who don’t deserve to have them.”

    NIGEL FARAGE RESPONDS AFTER ELON MUSK DECLARES HE ‘DOESN’T HAVE WHAT IT TAKES’ TO LEAD REFORM UK PARTY

    In December 2024, The Times of London first reported Musk was considering a $100 million donation to Farage’s Reform UK Party. A photo at Mar-a-Lago of Musk, Farage and Nick Candy, the party’s treasurer, released by Reform UK confirmed talks were underway. 

    Left: Nigel Farage; Right: Elon Musk

    Nigel Farage and Elon Musk (Getty Images)

    On Jan. 5, Musk created a rift when he advocated for the release of Tommy Robinson, a British political figure controversial for his views on free speech. Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, is imprisoned for releasing a documentary with defamatory comments about a Syrian refugee. 

    Farage was quick to distance himself from Musk’s view on Robinson, maintaining that “Tommy Robinson is not right for Reform.” In response, Musk called for a new leader of Reform, saying Farage “doesn’t have what it takes.”

    Despite the social media tension, Farage was one of several European political leaders at Trump’s inauguration in January. He joined Éric Zemmour of France, Tom Van Grieken of Belgium and former Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki in Washington, D.C.

    Farage’s post aligns with the growing “woke waste” movement in the United Kingdom, a group advocating for government transparency and a DOGE of their own. Since the end of 2024, The Procurement Files has been searching through over 300,000 contracts on the United Kingdom’s public government database to show Brits where their taxpayer money is going. 

    Trump and Nigel Farage

    Nigel Farage speaks next to Donald Trump during a campaign rally in October 2020 in Arizona. (Reuters/Jonathan Ernst)

    Operating much like DOGE’s X account, The Procurement Files searches the government’s database to reveal wasteful spending. Much like we’ve seen play out with Musk cutting DEI and USAID spending, many posts spotlight spending on sustainability initiatives and international humanitarian aid. 

    One post revealed U.K. taxpayers spent £50,000 to study “shrimp health in Bangladesh.” Another post highlighted a £15.5 million U.K. investment in a “Climate Smart Jobs Programme in Uganda.” 

    Charlotte Gill, who runs DOGE UK on social media, is working alongside The Procurement Files to reveal government waste and misuse of taxpayer money. Trump granted Musk the executive authority to investigate and implement the DOGE agenda to “maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.” Gill has created an online community in the absence of an official DOGE UK. 

    When Mete Coban, the deputy mayor of London for environment and energy, announced a program giving away 70,000 trees, Gill took her frustration to social media.

    The United Kingdom proposed government spending regulations in November 2024. With a goal of saving £1.2 billion by 2026, the new plan increases government oversight to cut unnecessary spending. 

    “We’re taking immediate action to stop all non-essential government consultancy spend in 2024-25 and halve government spending on consultancy in future years, saving the taxpayer over £1.2 billion by 2026,” Georgia Gould, parliamentary secretary at the Cabinet Office, announced in November. “It comes alongside our work to develop a strategic plan to make the Civil Service more efficient and effective, with bold measures to improve skills and harness digital technology.”

    Prime Minister Keir Starmer

    Prime Minister Keir Starmer gives an interview on Feb. 6, 2025, in Preston, England. (Oli Scarff – WPA Pool/Getty Images)

    U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer referenced Trump’s long-standing commitment to “draining the swamp” during a speech promising “change and reform” for the United Kingdom in December 2024. 

    “I don’t think there’s a swamp to be drained here, but I do think too many people in Whitehall are comfortable in the tepid bath of managed decline,” Starmer said. 

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    DOGE UK, Farage and Starmer did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. 

  • M in taxpayer funds spent creating transgender animals last year

    $10M in taxpayer funds spent creating transgender animals last year

    $10 million in taxpayer funds were spent last year creating transgender animals, a study by White Coat Waste Project revealed. 

    Rep. Nancy Mace, R-SC, laid out the misuse of taxpayer dollars funding “gender-affirming care” for animals during opening remarks at a subcommittee hearing on Thursday. The hearing, titled “Transgender Lab Rats and Poisoned Puppies: Oversight of Taxpayer Funded Animal Cruelty,” featured a witness from the White Coat Waste Project. 

    “Last year, the White Coat Waste Project exposed more than $10 million in taxpayer funds that were spent creating transgender mice, rats, and monkeys,” Mace said. “These DEI grants funded painful and deadly transgender experiments that forced lab animals to undergo invasive surgeries and hormone therapies at universities across the country.”

    Mace took aim at the Biden-Harris administration’s radical policy agenda for allowing taxpayer dollars to fund “surgically mutating animal genitals.”

    GOP LAWMAKER SCRAPS WITH DEMOCRAT IN HEARING OVER TRANSGENDER ‘SLUR,’ BATHROOM RIGHTS: ‘NOT GOING TO HAVE IT’

    WASHINGTON, DC – NOVEMBER 19: U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) arrives for a House Republican caucus meeting at the U.S. Capitol on November 19, 2024 in Washington, DC. Mace introduced legislation that would require House members and staffers from “using single-sex facilities other than those corresponding to their biological sex.” Mace introduced the bill in response to incoming Representative-elect Sarah McBride (D-DE) who will soon be the first transgender member of Congress.  (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

    WEST POINT DISBANDS GENDER-BASED, RACE CLUBS IN TRUMP’S DEI SWEEP

    “The Biden-Harris administration spent 2.5 million taxpayer dollars to study the fertility of transgender mice,” Mace said. “The Biden-Harris administration was so eager to propagate their radical gender ideology across all facets of American society that they were surgically mutating animal genitals. Taxpayer money went to that.”

    Before yielding to ranking member Rep. Shontel Brown, D-OH, Mace said wasteful government spending on animal cruelty is a “nonpartisan issue.”

    “The US government spends in excess of $20 billion a year conducting experiments on animals,” Mace said. “We spent over a million dollars to find out if female rats receiving testosterone therapy were more likely to overdose on a date rape drug. That’s what your taxpayer dollars were being spent on.”

    Rep. Nancy Mace

    Rep. Nancy Mace narrowly won election in 2020 over incumbent Joe Cunningham (D) by one-percent or about 5,400 votes. With newly redrawn redistricting maps in place, she comfortably won reelection by 14%. (Getty Images)

    Mace thanked the White Coast Waste Project for their research. Justin Goodman, SVP of White Coat Waste Project; Dr. Paul A. Locke, a Professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; and Elizabeth Baker, Director of Research Policy at Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine were invited to testify at Thursday’s hearing. 

    Beagles who were rescued from a National Institutes of Health (NIH) supplier were in the audience as a “reminder of the real cost of animal experimentation,” Mace said. In 2022, Mace stopped a $1.8 million dollar drug test experiment on beagle puppies. 

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    “Today, most of the twenty-seven NIH institutes and centers conduct or support animal testing—as does the Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, the Department of Defense, and countless agencies,” Mace said. “I hope today’s conversation can similarly prevent taxpayer dollars from needlessly funding animal experimentation.”

  • President Trump reinstates Mexico City Policy, separates taxpayer dollars and abortions

    President Trump reinstates Mexico City Policy, separates taxpayer dollars and abortions

    An executive order President Donald Trump signed Friday will overturn two Biden memorandums and reinstate the Mexico City Policy, which forbids using taxpayer dollars to fund nongovernmental organizations that perform or promote coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization.

    The Mexico City Policy, initiated by the Reagan administration, has been rescinded by every Democratic president and reinstated by every Republican president since its creation.

    During the Biden administration, the Pentagon paid for service members to travel over state lines for abortions, and Veterans Affairs medical centers were allowed to offer abortion counseling and abortion procedures for service members and their beneficiaries, Fox News Digital previously reported.

    President Donald Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., Jan. 20.  (Jim Watson/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

    PRO-LIFE PROTESTERS PARDONED BY TRUMP, FOX CONFIRMS

    The administration also provided abortion access to migrants detained at the border, offering transport of unaccompanied pregnant children to states without abortion restrictions.

    The White House said that, for nearly five decades, Congress annually enacted the Hyde Amendment and similar laws that prevent federal funding of elective abortion, “reflecting a longstanding consensus that American taxpayers should not be forced to pay for that practice.”

    march for life

    Nuns arrive to participate in the annual March for Life Friday in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

    BLUE STATE ‘RESISTANCE’ REPORTEDLY STOCKPILING ABORTION PILLS IN PREPARATION FOR ANOTHER TRUMP TERM

    “However, the previous administration disregarded this established, commonsense policy by embedding forced taxpayer funding of elective abortions in a wide variety of Federal programs,” the White House wrote in a statement. “It is the policy of the United States, consistent with the Hyde Amendment, to end the forced use of Federal taxpayer dollars to fund or promote elective abortion.”

    Biden’s Presidential Memorandum, Protecting Women’s Health at Home and Abroad, was signed Jan. 28, 2021, and alleged the policy’s restrictions negatively affected women’s reproductive health and undermined U.S. partnerships in global health efforts.

    Demonstrators during the People's March,

    Pro-choice supporters hold signs during a rally. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

    Trump’s order rescinds two Biden executive actions that promoted access to abortions and included abortion in the definition of “reproductive healthcare.”

    The language in the new order clarified the memorandum is “not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.”

    The Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) told Fox News Digital the policy “will decrease abortion access in countries around the world.”

    “This far-reaching policy defunds health organizations in other countries that provide abortion services or information, even for victims of sexual assault,” CRR said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital. “Many of these critical organizations will likely shutter as a result or be forced to stop providing or even talking about abortion services.”

    marco rubio

    Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks after being sworn in by Vice President JD Vance in the Vice Presidential Ceremonial Office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House campus Tuesday in Washington, D.C.  (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

    CRR representatives also referenced the administration’s Geneva Consensus Declaration Friday night, which is a joint initiative to “secure meaningful health and development gains for women; to protect life at all stages; to defend the family as the fundamental unit of society; and to work together across the UN system to realize these values,” according to a statement from Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

    The CRR called the declaration “an anti-reproductive rights and anti-LGBTQ political statement” that “intentionally misrepresents itself as an official international agreement, and attempts to undermine the broad legal basis for reproductive rights as human rights.”

    “The reinstatement of President Trump’s Global Gag Rule (GGR) and rejoining of the Geneva Consensus are direct assaults on the health and human rights of millions of people around the world,” said Rachana Desai Martin, CRR chief government and external relations officer. 

    Schumer at contraception press conference outside Capitol

    Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speaks during a news conference in front of the U.S. Capitol May 21, 2024, in Washington, D.C. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

    “We saw the devastating impact of the GGR during the last Trump administration when contraception and vital reproductive services were cut off,” Martin added. “There was a spike in pregnancy-related deaths, reproductive coercion and gender inequality worldwide. Many clinics and health programs shuttered, leaving vulnerable populations with nowhere to get birth control, pregnancy care and other vital health services.”

    Live Action, a global human rights movement dedicated to ending abortion, posted on X after the order was signed.

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    “The Mexico City policy which ensures American tax dollars do not fund killing children internationally through abortion has been reinstated by President Trump!” the post said.

    Fox News Digital requested comment from Planned Parenthood and Physicians for Reproductive Health but did not immediately receive a response.