Former special counsel prosecutor Jack Smith vigorously defended the decisions he made in investigating President Donald Trump after his first term in office,telling members of the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday that his team of prosecutors had uncovered ‘proof beyond a reasonable doubt’ that Trump had engaged in criminal activity.

‘Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in criminal activity,’ Smith said. ‘If asked whether to prosecute a former president based on the same facts today, I would do so— regardless of whether that president was a Republican or a Democrat,’ Smith said. 

Smith testified publicly for the first time Thursday about the dual special counsel investigation he led looking into Trump’s alleged effort to subvert the 2020 election and Trump’s alleged retention of certain classified documents. 

Smith brought charges against Trump in both cases, but they were ultimately dropped after Trump’s re-election, in keeping with longstanding Justice Department guidance.

Smith resigned shortly after Trump’s election to a second term in 2024.

But Smith said Thursday that he had no second thoughts about the actions he took as special counsel, stressing that the decisions that were made with regard to political party and in keeping with longstanding Justice Department policies.

The hearing became acrimonious at times, as House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan and other Republicans grilled Smith over certain decisions he made.

One area of focus was his decision to access so-called ‘tolling records’ of certain Republican lawmakers during the probe. Unlike wiretaps, tolling records are phone logs that reveal the phone numbers of incoming and outgoing callers, as well as the time and duration of calls. 

Republicans honed in on this detail Thursday, blasting the actions as ‘political weaponization.’ Smith, for his part, defended the tolling records as ‘common practice’ in such investigations.   

Smith previously said that the Public Integrity Section had signed off on the subpoenas, a point corroborated by previously released public records.

Other Republicans assailed Smith’s actions as ‘overly aggressive’ and beyond the scope of his authority. 

Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Calif., meanwhile, blasted Smith for attempting to seek the ‘maximum litigation advantage at every turn, and ‘repeatedly circumventing constitutional limitations to the point that you had to be reined in again and again throughout the process.’

Trump, in Davos, also weighed in prior to the hearing.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum, Trump said ‘everybody now knows that’ the 2020 election was ‘rigged,’ and vowed that ‘people will soon be prosecuted for what they did.’ He did not immediately elaborate.

Still, Smith sought to impart on the panel his belief that the special counsel prosecutors had built a strong case against Trump. 

‘We observed legal requirements and took actions based on the facts and the law,’ Smith said, saying the decisions were made ‘without regard to President Trump’s political association.’

He also lamented the ousting of FBI agents and Justice Department officials, including members of the special counsel who he said have been fired or unfairly targeted in Trump’s first year back in office.

Trump, he said, ‘has sought to seek revenge against career prosecutors, FBI agents and support staff simply for having worked on these cases.’

‘To vilify and seek retribution against these people is wrong,’ Smith said. ‘Those dedicated public servants are the best of us, and it has been a privilege to serve with them.’

Thousands of FBI personnel in February were forced to fill out a sprawling questionnaire asking employees detailed questions about any role they may have played in the investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riots — ranging from whether they had testified in any criminal trials to when they last participated in investigation-related activity. 

In the months since, a handful of personnel involved in the Jan. 6 investigations have been abruptly fired as part of an effort that individuals familiar with the action described to Fox News as an act of ‘retaliation.’ 

The Justice Department also fired individuals who worked with Smith on the special counsel investigations, as Smith noted Thursday.

‘In my opinion, these people are the best of public servants, our country owes them a debt of gratitude, and we are all less safe because many of these experienced and dedicated law enforcement professionals have been fired,’ he said.

Former special counsel Jack Smith’s hearing on Capitol Hill kicked off with a reminder from Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, of the controversial 2022 raid of then-former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence. 

Jordan revealed that Barron Trump’s room was among the areas searched.

Smith appeared in a Capitol Hill hearing on Thursday in which he was questioned about his prosecutions of Trump. He previously testified about the investigations in a closed-door deposition.

‘And then there was the raid on President Trump’s home. You know, where they searched Barron’s room and the first lady’s closet? In our deposition with Steven D’Antuono, head of the FBI Washington field office, he told us none of the normal process, none of the normal protocol was followed in the investigation,’ Jordan said.

The chairman said that D’Antuono had relayed that the first issue with the raid was that it was run out of the FBI D.C. field office rather than the one in Miami. 

Additionally, Jordan said that D’Antuono claimed he and others in the FBI Washington field office recommended that Trump be notified before they carried out the search, ‘or at least when they got there, before they start the search, call the president’s lawyers, ask them to come there and meet them.’ According to Jordan, the Department of Justice (DOJ) rejected the recommendations.

‘On November 18th, 2022, three days after President Trump announces he’s running for president, Attorney General Garland names Jack Smith special counsel. One of the first things Mr. Smith does is put on his team the very people responsible for the raid on President Trump’s home,’ Jordan said.

The raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence sparked controversy about the handling of the search and what was found during it. At the time, Trump accused the Biden administration of using ‘Third World’ tactics.

‘The Biden administration invaded the home of their chief political opponent, who is absolutely destroying him and everybody else in the polls,’ Trump said in 2022 during a rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

Trump continued, ‘On a phony pretext from a highly political magistrate who they hand-picked late in the evening, just days before the break-in, and trampled upon my rights and civil liberties as if our country that we love so much were a third world nation, we’re like a third world nation.’

Trump told the crowd at the rally that the FBI had gone through then-former first lady Melania Trump’s closet drawers and ‘even did a deep and ugly search of the room of my sixteen-year-old son.’

The Trump administration has ended funding for research that involves the use of aborted fetal tissue, a Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) spokesperson confirmed to Fox News Digital. 

The spokesperson said effective immediately, National Institutes of Health (NIH) funds ‘will no longer be used for research that involves the fetal tissue of aborted babies.’ This comes a day before the March for Life.

In an announcement of the policy change, NIH said the move was ‘a significant milestone in the Trump Administration’s efforts to modernize biomedical science and accelerate innovation.’

‘NIH is pushing American biomedical science into the 21st century,’ said NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya. ‘This decision is about advancing science by investing in breakthrough technologies more capable of modeling human health and disease. Under President Trump’s leadership, taxpayer-funded research must reflect the best science of today and the values of the American people.’

NIH-supported research using fetal tissue has dipped since 2019, with only 77 projects funded in Fiscal Year 2024, according to the agency. It says that advancements in organoids, tissue chips, computational biology and more have been able to support scientific research ‘while reducing ethical concerns.’

The March for Life is an annual event that gathers pro-life supporters in Washington, D.C. The gathering coincides with the anniversary of the Supreme Court issuing its ruling on Roe v. Wade in 1973, though the ruling was overturned in 2022.

This year, Vice President JD Vance will address the crowd on Friday, as he did last year. Just days ago, Vance and his wife, Usha, announced that they are expecting their fourth child. When the White House posted its congratulations to the vice president and second lady, it declared the Trump administration to be ‘the most pro-family administration in history.’

In addition to Vance, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., will also be addressing the crowd on Friday.

Leaders from 17 countries were called to the stage during the Gaza Board of Peace charter signing ceremony in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday, including prime ministers, presidents and other senior government officials from Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Central and Southeast Asia.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called forward the following leaders to sign the founding charter alongside President Donald Trump, who was seated in the center.

• President of Argentina Javier Milei
• Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan
• President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev
• Prime Minister of the Republic of Bulgaria Rosen Zhelyazkov

• Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orbán
• President of the Republic of Indonesia Prabowo Subianto
• Deputy Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Jordan Ayman Safadi
• President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev
• President of the Republic of Kosovo Vjosa Osmani-Sadriu
• Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan Shehbaz Sharif

• President of the Republic of Paraguay Santiago Peña
• Prime Minister of the State of Qatar Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani
• Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud
• Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey Hakan Fidan

• Chairman of the Executive Authority Affairs of the United Arab Emirates Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak
• President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev
• Prime Minister of Mongolia Gombojavyn Zandanshatar

A handful of other countries were also invited by Trump to join, including Russia, Belarus, France, Germany, Vietnam, Finland, Ukraine, Ireland, Greece, Israel and China, among others.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he accepted Trump’s invitation to join the Board of Peace, following earlier concerns he had raised about the makeup of the Gaza executive board, including the roles of Qatar and Turkey.

U.K. Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper told the BBC on Thursday that Britain wouldn’t be one of the signatories to the founding charter over concerns about Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘being part of something that’s talking about peace when we’ve still not seen any signs from Putin that there will be commitment to peace in Ukraine.’

Trump will chair the peace board and be joined by a group of senior political, diplomatic and business figures, including his son-in-law Jared Kushner, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and billionaire Marc Rowan.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., claimed that President Donald Trump has been exhibiting ‘increasingly erratic’ behavior.

She made the comment in response to a question from Migrant Insider editor Pablo Manríquez, who asked, ‘How big of a factor is Donald Trump’s cognitive decline, given what we’re seeing at Davos?’ 

‘I think that the president has been acting in increasingly erratic ways,’ Ocasio-Cortez replied, according to the video shared on X.

‘I think it is really damning when we think about the degree to which mass media outlets reported on Joe Biden,’ she said, pointing to how the Democratic Party ultimately nominated Kamala Harris in the 2024 race.

‘Yet, we are seeing behavior from Donald Trump that is increasingly erratic and alarming,’ she said, asserting that ‘everyone’s pretending that this is normal.’

The congresswoman said America’s ‘global partners’ are seeing ‘the entire government apparatus and a party that is willing to watch someone decompensate in front of the world and do nothing about it.’

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment.

‘While deranged Democrats like Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez push these blatant lies, President Trump is dominating on the world stage and brokering historic deals to advance the interests of the American people,’ White House spokesperson Liz Huston said in a statement.

‘Don’t forget that after Joe Biden’s brain unraveled on the 2024 presidential debate stage and nearly the entire Democrat party subsequently panicked and demanded Biden drop out of the race, Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez was one of the few delusional holdouts backing and pleading for Joe Biden to remain as their presidential nominee as late as July 8, 2024,’ she added.

‘Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez’s peanut-sized brain either forgot this happened or she thinks the American people are too stupid to remember,’ Huston said.

In July 2024 — after President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance against Trump, but before Biden dropped out of the presidential race later in July — Ocasio-Cortez expressed her support for the incumbent. 

‘Joe Biden is our nominee. He is not leaving this race. He is in this race, and I support him,’ she said at the time.

Earlier this year, Trump declared in a Truth Social post, ‘The White House Doctors have just reported that I am in ‘PERFECT HEALTH,’ and that I ‘ACED’ (Meaning, was correct on 100% of the questions asked!), for the third straight time, my Cognitive Examination, something which no other President, or previous Vice President, was willing to take.’

‘P.S., I strongly believe that anyone running for President, or Vice President, should be mandatorily forced to take a strong, meaningful, and proven Cognitive Examination. Our great Country cannot be run by ‘STUPID’ or INCOMPETENT PEOPLE!’ he added.

In a Truth Social post last year, Trump referred to Ocasio-Cortez as ‘one of the ‘dumbest’ people in Congress.’

Democrats hold a slight advantage heading into the midterm elections in a new poll from The New York Times and Siena University.

The poll found that 48% of registered voters would support a Democratic candidate if the midterm elections were held today, compared to just 43% for a Republican candidate. The poll also showed skepticism toward President Donald Trump’s policies, with 47% of registered voters saying they ‘strongly disapprove’ of how he is handling his job as president.

The poll surveyed 1,625 registered voters nationwide from Jan. 12 to 17 and advertised a margin of error of 2.8%.

A 51% majority of Americans also say that Trump’s policies have made their lives less affordable.

In total, 49% of registered voters say the country is worse off now than it was a year ago, compared to 32% who say it is better.

The polling lines up with other recent surveys that have found many Americans souring on the president and his agenda.

The president’s approval rating stands at 45% in the latest Wall Street Journal poll, at 41% in Reuters/Ipsos, and an average of all the most recent national polls compiled by Real Clear Politics puts Trump’s approval at 42%, with 55% giving him a thumbs down on the job he’s doing.

Trump started his second term in positive territory, but his approval ratings sank below water last March and have slowly edged deeper into negative territory in the ensuing months.

The percentage of registered voters saying the country is on the right track has held steady since April, according to the survey. And Trump continues to hold support from Republicans, with four in five GOP registered voters saying the U.S. is on the right track.

Deep concerns over inflation boosted Trump and Republicans to sweeping victories at the ballot box in 2024, as they won back the White House and Senate and kept their House majority.

But Democrats say their decisive victories in November’s 2025 elections, and their overperformances in special elections and other ballot box showdowns last year, were fueled by their laser focus on affordability amid persistent inflation.

Trump’s approval ratings on the economy are, on average, slightly lower than his overall approval ratings.

The president’s numbers on the issue of illegal immigration, another issue that helped lift him to a re-election victory, have also eroded over the past year. The issue is once again front-and-center, following this month’s fatal shooting of a Minnesota woman by an ICE agent as she protested the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement efforts.

Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.

The House of Representatives is moving to jam the Senate by attaching a repeal of the upper chamber’s Arctic Frost repayment measure to a funding bill that’s key to averting a partial government shutdown.

A Senate GOP-led measure allowing Republicans in the upper chamber to sue the federal government for up to $500,000 if their phone records were seized by ex-Special Counsel Jack Smith is still causing heartburn in the House.

House lawmakers voted unanimously Thursday to roll back that measure, as an amendment to a $1.2 trillion federal funding package that’s expected to get a vote later in the day.

If the funding package is passed, the Senate will be forced to consider the repeal along with the larger spending bill or else amend it and risk running the clock down on Congress’ Jan. 30 government shutdown deadline.

The Senate GOP-led measure was included as part of a wider government funding package that ended the longest-ever shutdown in U.S. history last November. 

Its inclusion caught many House Republicans by surprise, angering them for its use of taxpayer dollars to benefit a relatively small contingent of lawmakers.

A House vote on repealing the measure late last year similarly passed via a unanimous vote but was never taken up in the Senate.

‘The leadership was worried about them rejecting it, but let them own it if they want to object to it,’ Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., who called the measure ‘ridiculous,’ told Fox News Digital on Thursday.

It will now be part of the overall funding package sent to the Senate, which provides dollars to keep the Department of War, Department of Education, Health and Human Services Department, and Department of Homeland Security, among others, running for the remainder of the fiscal year. 

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., with a green-light from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., added the tweak to the previous year’s spending deal during bipartisan talks to end the 43-day government shutdown.

Since then, congressional Republicans and Democrats alike have banded together to nix the provision, dubbed ‘Requiring Senate Notification for Senate Data.’

It would explicitly allow only senators directly targeted in Smith’s Arctic Frost investigation to sue the U.S. government for up to $500,000.

Thune at the time reasoned that members were effectively ‘spied on’ by the DOJ, and that the very act itself ‘demands some accountability.’ 

‘I think that in the end, this is something that all members of Congress, both House and Senate, are probably going to want as a protection, and we were thinking about the institution of the Senate and individual senators going into the future,’ Thune said.

Still, that has not stopped lawmakers in the upper chamber from trying to nuke the law. Several attempts have been made over the last few months to gut it on the Senate floor, and each has been blocked by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., the strongest proponent of the provision. 

Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., tried once again to get rid of the Arctic Frost law last week before the Senate left Washington, D.C., for a weeklong break. 

‘That policy is simply wrong,’ Peters said on the Senate floor. ‘And it goes against everything that we’re supposed to be doing as elected representatives to make life better for the people who live in our states and in the country.’

But, his attempt was once again blocked by Graham, who contended that his rights when he was not notified that his records, along with seven other senators, had been violated as part of the probe. 

‘If you cannot hold your government accountable for violating your rights or potentially violating your rights, you have a very dangerous government,’ Graham said on the Senate floor. ‘I am no better than anybody else, but I’m certainly as hell no worse than anybody else.’

The repeal provision’s inclusion in Thursday’s government funding bill caught many by surprise. It had not been part of the legislation when it advanced out of the House Rules Committee, and was only offered by Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., on the House floor shortly before voting began on a procedural hurdle called a ‘rule vote.’

It will be sent to the Senate along with the wider funding package if it’s passed by the House on Thursday afternoon.

The White House fully supports efforts on Capitol Hill to impeach federal judges who have gone ‘totally rogue’ with partisan rulings, Fox News Digital learned. 

A White House official told Fox News Digital that the administration is closely tracking the Senate Judiciary Committee’s impeachment inquiry involving U.S. District Judges James Boasberg, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, and Deborah Boardman, of the U.S. District Court in Maryland, as Republican lawmakers openly discuss impeaching what they describe as ‘activist’ judges.

‘Left-wing, activist judges have gone totally rogue,’ a White House official told Fox News Digital. ‘They’re undermining the rule of law in service of their own radical agenda. It needs to stop. And the White House fully embraces impeachment efforts.’

The White House official continued that President Donald Trump must be able to ‘lawfully implement the agenda the American people elected him on,’ arguing that judges who repeatedly issue partisan rulings have abused their offices and forfeited their claim to impartiality.

Federal judges can be impeached when the House approves articles alleging misconduct or abuse of office, with removal certified after the Senate convicts by a two-thirds vote. 

Boasberg has become a prime target for Republicans over a string of rulings tied to Trump-era immigration policies — including cases involving the transfer of migrants to El Salvador and other countries rather than holding them in U.S. detention.

More recently, he’s drawn fresh GOP backlash after reports surfaced that he approved warrants in former special counsel Jack Smith’s ‘Arctic Frost’ probe that enabled investigators to seize phone records connected to some Republican lawmakers.

He first faced articles of impeachment in March 2025 for preventing the administration from deporting some illegal migrants under the Alien Enemies Act, and again in November over the Arctic Frost decision. 

A White House official told Fox Digital that Boasberg has a history of issuing ‘plainly illegal’ while pointing to the warrants and subpoenas he authorized in the Arctic Frost investigation.

Boardman faces impeachment calls over her sentencing decision for a man found guilty of charges related to trying to assassinate Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. The man was sentenced to eight years when the recommended term was 30 years. 

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is among Republican lawmakers calling for Boasberg and Boardman to be impeached. He argued that they ‘meet the constitutional standard for impeachment’ during a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing earlier in January, calling both ‘rogue judges.’ 

The White House argued that federal judges who develop a record of issuing rogue, plainly unlawful rulings to advance or undermine a political party forfeit their impartiality, abuse their authority and warrant impeachment.

Both judges have avoided commenting publicly on impeachment talk, declining a Senate invitation to testify Jan. 7. 

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson also threw his support behind impeaching ‘rogue’ judges Wednesday. 

‘I think some of these judges have gotten so far outside the bounds of where they’re supposed to operate,’ Johnson said during a weekly press conference. ‘It would not be, in my view, a bad thing for Congress to lay down the law.’ 

The remarks are a departure from his comments in 2025, when he said impeachment was not a practical tool against judges seen as activists working against the Trump administration. 

‘Look, impeachments are never off the table if it’s merited. But in our system — we’ve had 15 federal judges impeached in the entire history of the country — I mean, there may be some that I feel merit that, but you’ve got to get the votes for it. And it’s a very high burden,’ Johnson said in May 2025.

‘Frankly, the bar is high crimes and misdemeanors. I mean, the last federal judge impeached, I think was caught … taking cash in an envelope. You know, it’s got to be a pretty brazen offense or a real open crime that everybody could agree to.’

Democrats have pushed against Republican calls for impeachment, including Senate Judiciary Committee member Sheldon Whitehouse responding to Cruz’s comments on potentially impeaching the judges in a letter to Johnson Wednesday. 

‘The pattern is clear: judges rule against the Administration; the President or his allies attack and spread misinformation; judges and their families receive threats, ‘swatting’ attempts, and threatening stunts like pizzas in the name of a federal judge’s murdered son.  DOJ has repeatedly refused to assure us that they are investigating the pattern of threats for possible orchestration. Baseless calls for impeachment in this threat environment only add to the dangers facing these judges and their loved ones,’ Whitehouse wrote in his letter to Johnson. 

Live Action, a pro-life organization, is demanding that the Trump administration take action on the distribution of and reporting on mifepristone, often colloquially called ‘the abortion pill.’ 

The group is holding a press conference on Capitol Hill on Thursday to discuss concerns surrounding the abortion drug, as well as a new investigative video from Live Action that the group says documents ‘the dangerous real-world distribution of this drug by Planned Parenthood and affiliated providers.’ The group alleges ‘reckless distribution’ practices and argues the adverse effects of the drug are not being documented properly, if at all.

In a letter to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary, Live Action said it aims to show ‘clear evidence of regulatory noncompliance and patient harm’ and to issue a call for immediate action from HHS and the FDA.

The letter urges HHS and the FDA to suspend the approval of mifepristone, prohibit the distribution of abortion pills through mail-order services and telehealth, reinstate comprehensive adverse-event reporting requirements, and release a full public accounting of the scientific and clinical evidence used to expand access to the drug.

‘For more than two decades, mifepristone has remained on the market under an approval process that was politically accelerated, shielded from transparency, and repeatedly expanded without regard for patient safety, adverse event reporting, or statutory compliance,’ the letter, signed by Lila Rose, Live Action founder and president, reads.

The FDA currently allows mifepristone to be prescribed via telehealth appointments and distributed by mail under its risk evaluation and mitigation strategy (REMS) program. The FDA advises against buying mifepristone online outside its REMS program, warning that those who do ‘would be bypassing important safeguards specifically designed to protect their health.’

The letter also references an April 2025 report issued by the Ethics & Public Policy Center (EPPC). The report claims that nearly 11% of women experience adverse side effects within 45 days of taking mifepristone, including sepsis, infection and hemorrhaging.

‘The real-world rate of serious adverse events following mifepristone abortions is at least 22 times as high as the summary figure of ‘less than 0.5 percent’ in clinical trials reported on the drug label,’ the EPPC report summary states.

Live Action also put out a video purportedly showing real calls with 27 Planned Parenthood locations across the U.S. In the video, a woman speaks with various Planned Parenthood locations about obtaining the abortion pill. The video appears to feature Planned Parenthood facilities in Alaska, Colorado, Kansas, Oregon, Minnesota, New Mexico and New York, with some states appearing multiple times.

The first section shows the woman asking whether the clinics need to see ultrasounds before prescribing the pill in order to assess the gestational age of the fetus. Many of those answering the phones at the Planned Parenthood locations said women could obtain the pill without an ultrasound through a telehealth appointment.

In the second section, the woman who called was told that Planned Parenthood would not test for Rhesus (Rh) incompatibility. Rh is a protein that some people carry in their blood, and it can cause issues in future pregnancies. 

A form from Planned Parenthood of Greater New York dated March 2020 states that, ‘There is a chance you might make Rh antibodies and have problems with future pregnancies. Research has not proved this.’

Live Action’s video also purportedly showed that those who answered the phone at multiple Planned Parenthood locations assured the women that they did not need to give their medical history or attend an in-person follow-up.

It was unclear if the individuals who spoke with the woman had medical training. One suggested that the woman speak to a medical professional to get more accurate information on specific questions.

Those who answered the phone for clinics in multiple states also said the caller would be able to have the pills sent to another person’s house. When asked whether the pills needed to be taken right away, most said they did not, with many assuring the woman calling that she could change her mind or wait to make a decision. However, the person on the phone at one clinic said that the woman had until 12 weeks to take the pill and advised that it would not be effective after that time.

Live Action released its letter and accompanying video ahead of the annual March for Life, which is scheduled for Jan. 23. Vice President JD Vance, who recently announced that he and his wife, Usha, are expecting their fourth child, is slated to speak at the march, as he did in 2025. Other speakers include House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Planned Parenthood said its health centers that offer medication abortion ‘follow all applicable laws and regulations and always ensure care provided reflects the latest credible research and upholds the highest standard of patient care.’ 

‘In accordance with Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s medical standards and guidelines — which are developed and updated with medical experts across the field of sexual and reproductive health care using rigorous scientific evidence — providers at Planned Parenthood health centers explain the associated risks and benefits to patients seeking medication abortion, just as they do with every health care service provided,’ Danika Severino, Planned Parenthood vice president of care and access, said in a statement.

‘Mifepristone is safe, legal, and has been used by more than 7.5 million people for abortion and miscarriage care since its approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 25 years ago,’ Severino added. ‘Despite 25 years of data and more than 100 peer-reviewed studies proving mifepristone is extremely safe and effective, anti-abortion activists continue to spread disinformation to advance their harmful political agenda.’  

Fox News Digital also reached out to HHS and the FDA for comment.

The State Department is finalizing an expansion of the Mexico City Policy Friday that will bar U.S. foreign assistance from subsidizing abortion and, in a major broadening, from supporting what the administration calls gender and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, Fox News Digital learned Thursday.

The Mexico City Policy is a Reagan-era U.S. rule that conditions foreign aid on recipient groups certifying they will not provide or promote abortion as a method of family planning. Former President Ronald Reagan first rolled the policy out in 1984 at a United Nations population conference to prevent U.S. foreign aid from being used to promote abortion in other nations. 

The State Department Friday is expected to finalize three rules to expand the Mexico City Policy to protect foreign assistance from subsidizing not only abortion as a method of family planning, but also gender ideology, equity and DEI ideology and abortion as a method of family planning, Fox News Digital learned. 

Under previous iterations of the Mexico City Policy, U.S. funding was barred from supporting organizations that provide or promote abortion as a method of family planning. During President Donald Trump’s first term, the policy was expanded to cover roughly $8 billion in global health assistance. 

The newly finalized rules go further, and cover all nonmilitary foreign assistance to the tune of more than $30 billion. 

Foreign nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and international organizations receiving U.S. assistance will be required to certify that they do not provide or promote abortion as a method of family planning, promote gender ideology, promote discriminatory equity ideology, or engage in unlawful diversity, equity and inclusion–related discrimination, according to the policy framework. 

U.S.-based NGOs operating overseas will face similar certification requirements, Fox Digital learned. 

Democrat presidents typically rescind the rule, such as former President Joe Biden’s days after taking office in 2021, with Republican presidents typically reinstating the rule, as did Trump in January 2025. 

‘These excessive conditions on foreign and development assistance undermine the United States’ efforts to advance gender equality globally by restricting our ability to support women’s health and programs that prevent and respond to gender-based violence,’ Biden said in 2021 when defending rescinding the rule after the first Trump administration wrapped up. 

The Mexico City Policy got its name due to Reagan first unveiling the policy at a U.N. conference that was held in Mexico City in 1984. The rule later became known as the ‘global gag rule’ because it conditioned U.S. aid on groups that agreed not to provide or promote abortion as family planning, which opponents argued effectively ‘gags’ their speech and advocacy overseas.

The expected new rules come as the annual March for Life will be held in Washington, D.C., Friday, which attracts thousands of pro-lifers in the cold winter months to march through the streets of the nation’s capital to champion protecting the unborn. Vice President JD Vance is slated to join the pro-lifers and deliver remarks. 

Trump repeatedly has touted the policy, saying in 2017 that his first administration was working ‘to protect the unborn’ by reinstating the Mexico City Policy. The addition of gender and DEI ideology to the framework follows the Trump administration’s year of work to roll back what it describes as the use of federal policy and funding to advance progressive social ideology.

‘We’ve ended the tyranny of so-called diversity, equity and inclusion policies all across the entire federal government,’ Trump celebrated back in March 2025. ‘Our country will be woke no longer.’