Abortion and Gender Policy

The Department of Health and Human Services has appointed conservative activist Bethany Kozma to lead its Office of Global Affairs, the agency’s top global health diplomacy role, giving her significant influence over how the U.S. shapes health policy abroad after Trump-era foreign aid cuts and withdrawal from the World Health Organization. Kozma, who has publicly equated abortion with 'murder' and called gender‑affirming care 'evil,' lacks a visible background in global health but previously served in the Trump administration at USAID and helped craft Project 2025 guidance to strip 'climate change' language from policy documents. HHS, in a statement, framed OGA under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as advancing the Trump administration’s agenda and 'gold‑standard science' with global partners while declining to address specific concerns about Kozma’s views.