How US groups are driving a new generation of anti-abortion activism in the UK

March 15, 2026

For 21-year-old John Alexander, being against abortion came before finding faith. As a teenager at school in Buckinghamshire, he was confused as to why most of his peers supported access to abortion. On social media he argued vocally against it.

Then, shortly after the pandemic, he became more interested in Christianity. He was raised in the Church of England (CofE), but thought the denomination was "dry" and involved "people sitting in pews not doing much". He was inspired by the young pastor at a Pentecostal Church which discussed social issues like abortion more than CofE churches, he says. He also watched social media videos of street preachers.

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2dl5j0w23o

UK – Does Nigel Farage have a problem with women?

Critics link Farage’s ‘Trump-lite’ condescension to female journalists to Reform’s moves against women’s rights

Alexandra Topping
Sat 21 Feb 2026

When Nigel Farage told a journalist this week she should “write some silly story … and we won’t bother to read it”, it provoked an instant – and divided – reaction. For some it was a “masterclass” in dealing with mainstream media, but for others it was “rude, dismissive, misogynistic, arrogant”.

Behind the scenes, Farage’s treatment of the Financial Times’s Anna Gross – which was met with mirth and applause among Reform diehards in the room – provoked disquiet and anger among lobby journalists across the political spectrum.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/21/nigel-farage-women-problem-trump-style-provocation-prejudice

New Foreign Aid Rules Will Threaten Lives

The Trump Administration is expanding foreign aid restrictions on abortion, transgender health care, and DEI initiatives.

by Susana T. Fried, Alicia Ely Yamin - The Progressive Magazine
February 4, 2026

On January 23, Vice President J.D. Vance launched the Trump Administration’s new plan to “promote families and human flourishing.” But rather than being, as he claimed, “pro-life,” these rules will threaten the lives of people around the world, especially women and people who don’t fit into the administration’s narrow, unscientific categories of gender.

The first of the new restrictions on foreign aid announced by Vance extends the existing Mexico City Policy prohibitions on abortion funding to encompass not just global health assistance but all non-military foreign assistance—including U.S.-based nonprofits and government-to-government funding. Known to critics as the “Global Gag Rule,” recipients receiving funding from the U.S. government are prohibited even from tapping other donors to provide information or education regarding women’s health. This expansion will severely limit access to abortion and the full range of sexual and reproductive health care, even in humanitarian emergencies.

Continued: https://progressive.org/op-eds/new-foreign-aid-rules-will-threaten-lives-fried-yamin-20260204/

04.02.2026

Promoting Human Flourishing in Foreign Assistance

U.S. Agency for International Development

America’s culture wars are killing people overseas

When “pro-life” foreign aid hurts women and children the most.

by Sara Herschander
Jan 30, 2026

“The mark of barbarism is that we treat babies like inconveniences to be discarded,” Vice President JD Vance bellowed to a crowd of zoomer nuns, bagpipers, and white nationalists at the annual March for Life in Washington, DC, last Friday.

The vice president then proceeded to announce a threefold expansion of the Mexico City policy, a decades-old, controversial foreign policy that prohibits organizations from receiving foreign aid if they mention abortion as a family planning option. It was reinstated last year when President Donald Trump resumed office.

Continued: https://archive.is/vdb65

(https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/477125/foreign-aid-dei-gender-global-gag-mexico-city)

Latest US Restrictions on Aid ‘Bully’ Recipients to Accept ‘Extremist Ideology’

29/01/2026
Kerry Cullinan

Global health organisations have reacted with anger to the new US foreign aid policy, which prohibits all aid recipients, bar military, from performing or promoting abortion, “gender ideology”, or “diversity, equity and inclusion” (DEI).

“Catastrophic”, “bullying”, “draconian” and “ideologically driven” – are some of their reactions to the Promoting Human Flourishing in Foreign Assistance (PHFFA) policy, announced by US Vice-President JD Vance at an anti-abortion event last Friday evening.

Continued; https://healthpolicy-watch.news/latest-us-restrictions-on-aid-bully-recipients-to-accept-extremist-ideology/

Trump expands policy banning aid to groups abroad that discuss or provide abortions

January 23, 2026
By Jonathan Lambert, NPR
3-Minute Listen, with transcript

For over four decades, Republican presidents have banned U.S. funds from going to groups that provide or promote abortion — and Democratic presidents have reversed the ban.

On Friday at the March for Life rally in Washington, D.C., Vice President JD Vance announced a major expansion of the policy. The Mexico City policy, named for where it was first unveiled, will now also bar funding to groups that promote "gender ideology" and diversity, equity and inclusion.

Continued; https://www.npr.org/2026/01/23/nx-s1-5683204/abortion-trump-mexico-city-policy

America’s abortion wars: inside the clinic on the front line

Since the overturning of Roe v Wade in 2022, abortion is illegal in 13 US states. New Mexico has become the nearest place for many women to terminate a pregnancy — if they can get past the religious activists on a mission to change their minds

George Grylls
Friday January 16 2026

Haley Nathan, 19, writes down the details of women’s cars on a clipboard outside an abortion clinic in New Mexico, braced for the day ahead. New Mexico is the closest option for any Texan woman to receive an abortion since the overturning of Roe v Wade in June 2022.

She’s frequently yelled at, or shown the middle finger. “I try not to let it bother me because it’s gonna affect my performance on the sidewalk,” says Nathan, a young intern, fixated on the clinic’s door as she prepares herself for the hostility coming her way. “I like to say it’s not me who’s doing the work. It’s God in me. I step out, God steps in.”

Continued: https://archive.is/6FX9Y
(https://www.thetimes.com/us/news-today/article/abortion-roe-v-wade-h2j7j9lm9)

Is British politics immune to US-style rightwing Christianity? We’re about to find out

Nigel Farage and Tommy Robinson are increasingly espousing Christian ‘values’, and a wealthy US legal group is becoming influential – this could have dire consequences

Lamorna Ash
Tue 25 Nov 2025

Earlier this year, not long after Tommy Robinson embraced evangelical Christianity while in prison, the then Conservative MP Danny Kruger spoke in parliament about the need for a restoration of Britain through the “recovery of a Christian politics”. Less than two months later, Kruger joined Reform, and shortly after that, James Orr, a vociferously conservative theologian who has been described as JD Vance’s “English philosopher king”, was appointed as one of Reform’s senior advisers. The party’s leader, Nigel Farage, now frequently invokes the need for a return to “Judeo-Christian” values.

The British right is increasingly invoking the Christian tradition: the question is what it hopes to gain from doing so.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/commentisfree/2025/nov/25/british-politics-us-rightwing-christianity-nigel-farage-tommy-robinson-adf

The worrying rise of US anti-abortion rhetoric is in full force – how deep is Reform UK’s involvement?

Money is pouring into anti-abortion campaigns in Britain, and it seems Nigel Farage’s party isn’t pushing back…

By Jennifer Savin
20 November 2025

There’s been a lot of talk recently suggesting that we need to keep a close eye on abortion rights here in the UK. With whisperings that what happened in America – the toppling of Roe v Wade, which left a 10-year-old denied an abortion – could happen here, especially if Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party makes it into power at the next election.

While nothing is guaranteed, it’s a scary thought – particularly as we made great strides with abortion care this year.

Continued: https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/reports/a69468983/reform-uk-nigel-farage-abortion/

UK – Nigel Farage appoints right-wing anti-abortion theologian as Reform senior adviser

Professor James Orr is understood to be close to JD Vance and influential in Donald Trump’s administration with his right-wing views on abortion and immigration

David Maddox
Sunday 19 October

Reform has been accused of “importing divisive and dangerous ideas” from Maga politics in the US after a right-wing theologian who opposes abortion in all cases joined the party as Nigel Farage’s adviser.

Cambridge University professor James Orr, who heads the Centre for a Better Britain think tank, is an influential figure in Donald Trump’s administration and is admired by vice-president JD Vance.

Continued: https://www.the-independent.com/news/uk/politics/farage-james-orr-rightwing-theologian-reform-b2848126.html

19.10.2025