US Still Funds Worst of the Woke Overseas

By | 2026

UNITED NATIONS, June 5 (C-Fam) The UN agency for emergency humanitarian assistance is still giving U.S. funds to groups that promote abortion, gender ideology, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) abroad, prompting questions about whether the Trump administration has given the UN a waiver on its Mexico City Policy, which forbids such funding.

A new online transparency website of the UN humanitarian agency shows that several of the organizations receiving U.S. funds are leading international organizations invested in promoting the woke agenda abroad, including UN agencies, the Norwegian Refugee Council, Plan International, Care International, the International Rescue Committee, and others.

One of the programs funded in Nigeria, the SAHAEI Gender Development Initiative, received two grants totaling $410,000 over the last year and is currently being implemented. While details of the work in the country are not available publicly, the program was designed and launched by a progressive U.S. global aid organization called FreeFrom.

The organization describes itself as “a proudly feminist national organization led by queer, trans, im/migrant, and BIPOC survivors.” The organization lists the pronouns for each of the organization’s staff and leadership. The organization says its mission is to “end gender-based violence by building economic freedom and safety with survivors.”

That first tranche of funds was released prior to the administration’s announcement of the new rules that block funding for groups that promote abortion, gender ideology, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) abroad. It was also released despite obstruction from the European Union to U.S. attempts to stop the UN system from promoting abortion as an international right through UN humanitarian work.

When an additional $1.8 billion was released to OCHA last month, even more questions were raised, including concerns about a possible waiver on the new rules for OCHA. A British think tank reported last month that a waiver has been granted to OCHA funds. As of this writing, the Friday Fax has been unable to verify speculation that a waiver has been granted.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz and Under Secretary for Foreign Assistance, Humanitarian Affairs and Religious Freedom, Jeremy Lewin, came to UN headquarters to announce the additional funds to the UN humanitarian agency on May 14. They countered claims that the U.S. is not interested in the UN system. But they did not address any questions about the new pro-life restrictions on woke programming.

Waltz emphasized that the United States remains “by far the most generous nation in the world” and attacked critics of the U.S. government. “There’s this narrative out there in the media space that the United States has walked away. That is absolutely false. It’s fake news,” he said.

Waltz and Lewyn indicated they were fully on board with the ongoing UN reform efforts spearheaded by Europeans and the UN bureaucracy. They also assured American taxpayers that the humanitarian aid would be used only for the most urgent humanitarian needs. “These funds are for victims of natural disasters, for tsunamis, for earthquakes, for famine, people who are truly in critical need,” Waltz said.

During the same press conference, Tom Fletcher, the UN official at the helm of OCHA, thanked the U.S. government for its generosity and said the additional $1.8 billion would help to save millions of lives. He assured European and other donors that the UN system was doing everything to ensure continuity with its previous work, including on issues like gender.

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