Contextualizing claims State Department declared abortion, DEI and LGBTQ+ rights ‘human rights violations’

• In August 2025, the U.S Department of State released its annual “Country Reports on Human Rights Practices,” which omitted previously reported human rights violations, including “political freedoms, corruption, gender-based violence, and LGBTQ+ persecution,” according to Human Rights Watch.
• In November 2025, The Washington Post reported the State Department “instructed all U.S. embassies and consulates to begin preparing the annual country reports under these and numerous other guidelines that stand in sharp contrast to their historical focus on torture, politically motivated killings and persecution of minority groups.”
• Snopes has been unable to independently verify the reports of these alleged new directives, and the State Department has not replied to requests for comment. However, an independent review of the “2024 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices” showed a clear cutback in the incidents reported compared with prior years.

In late November 2025, online rumors purported that the U.S. Department of State, headed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, declared that things like access to abortion; diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives; and LGBTQ+ rights would now be considered human rights violations under the administration of President Donald Trump. 

Users on social media, particularly on Facebook (archived, archived) shared the alleged news, with some proclaiming, “Donald Trump is now trying to redefine human rights as the opposite of human rights.”

The rumor suggested the State Department had issued new directives to its embassies across the globe. According to reporting by Reuters: 

A senior State Department official said that new instructions to U.S. officials on the report mandate they include “infringements on human rights in foreign countries,” including on arrests or official investigations over speech as well as the state subsidization of abortions or abortion drugs and the total estimated number of annual abortions.

Officials are also mandated to note the enforcement of diversity, equity and inclusion policies that “‘provide preferential treatment’ to workers on the basis of race, sex, or caste.”

Snopes was not able to independently verify the new guidance delivered to U.S. diplomats, and the State Department has not yet responded to our inquiries, so we have opted not to put a rating on this claim. We will update this article if we learn more.

However, credible media outlets such as The Associated Press, The Washington Post, Reuters, Forbes, the BBC, CNN, NPR and NBC News have all reported on the updated directives from the State Department regarding its annual reporting of human rights violations across the globe.

In sum, reporting indicated the Trump administration upended longstanding practices in what is covered in the State Department’s annual “Country Reports on Human Rights Practices,” which was released in August 2025, delayed from March 2025. 

In August 2025, the AP reported that “the delay occurred because the Trump administration decided in March to ‘adjust’ the reports, which had been compiled during the Biden administration. Among other deletions, the reports do not include accounts from individual abuse survivors or witnesses.”

Following the delay but prior to the report’s release, NPR wrote that State Department employees were “directed to ‘streamline’ the reports by stripping them down to only that which is legally required” so as to align them with U.S. policy and executive orders issued by Trump.

The August 2025 report signified apparent changes in what the U.S. considered human rights violations, but according to media reports, official updated guidance was delivered to diplomats in November 2025, sparking the wave of social media posts on the subject.

Snopes’ independent review of the 2024 report showed significantly scaled-back information compared with years prior. This included the lack of any introduction from Rubio, a summary of the report from the department’s figurehead that had been present in past years.

Instead, the administration is reportedly turning the focus of the report to “emphasizing entitlements ‘given to us by God, our creator’ and issuing new guidance for U.S. diplomats to scrutinize the prevalence of abortion and gender-transition surgery among children,” according to The Washington Post.

The Post further reported that courts in the U.S. — and outside of the country — frequently rely on these reports, which cover 198 countries and have been compiled for about five decades. Indeed, the report was first mandated in 1974 and reports as far back as 1999 are available to view on the State Department’s website.

Multiple outlets reported an identical statement from State Department deputy spokesperson Tommy Pigott in which he said of the updates, “In recent years, new destructive ideologies have given safe harbor to human rights violations. The Trump administration will not allow these human rights violations, such as the mutilation of children, laws that infringe on free speech, and racially discriminatory employment practices, to go unchecked.”

“Mutilation of children” is a reference to transgender youth, and “racially discriminatory employment practices” refers to DEI initiatives, both of which have been publicly targeted by the Trump administration. 

In addition, the BBC reported that the new instructions also said countries that subsidize abortion or facilitate mass migration are infringing on human rights.

Human Rights Watch, a nonprofit organization that “investigates and reports on abuses happening in all corners of the world,” wrote of the Trump administration’s updates: 

On August 12, 2025, the State Department released its ‘Country Reports on Human Rights Practices’ covering the year 2024. The report omits several categories of rights violations that were standard in past editions, including women, LGBT people, persons with disabilities, corruption in government, and freedom of peaceful assembly. The administration has also grossly mischaracterized the human rights records of abusive governments with which it has or is currently seeking friendly relations.

Human Rights Watch pointed to the report’s categorization of the war in Gaza, in which the “State Department disregards the Israeli authorities’ mass forced displacement of Palestinians in Gaza, their use of starvation as a weapon of war, and their deliberate deprivation of water, electricity, medical aid, and other goods necessary for civilians’ survival, actions that amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and acts of genocide.” 

Further, the organization argued, “The State Department also fails to mention vast damage and destruction to Gaza’s essential infrastructure and the majority of homes, schools, universities, and hospitals.”

Indeed, an independent review of the “2024 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Israel, West Bank and Gaza” revealed no mention of the above. Further, a section of the report under the subheading “War Crimes, Crimes against Humanity, and Evidence of Acts that May Constitute Genocide, or Conflict-related Abuses” featured only one sentence: “Terrorist organizations Hamas and Hizballah continue to engage in the indiscriminate targeting of Israeli civilians in violation of the law of armed conflict.”

In comparison, the same section of the 2023 report ran nearly 2,000 words, including detailed coverage of the conditions of prisons and detention centers. 

Other changes were highlighted by the Congressional Equality Caucus, a collection of members of the United States House of Representatives who aim to “promote equality for all people regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, or sex characteristics.” 

For instance, the caucus pointed out that “the report says there ‘were no credible reports of significant human rights abuses’ in Hungary in 2024, even though Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government continued its anti-LGBTQ rights crackdown.” Reporting from the AP in 2024 showed growing backlash from the European Union to the Hungarian government’s anti-LGBTQ+ stance, which continued with legislation passed in March 2025 that would allow for the banning of LGBTQ+ Pride events. 

The caucus also said the report did not accurately reflect what would traditionally be classified as human rights violations in years past, such as “Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Law” and that “Brazil has the highest number of reported murders of transgender people in the world.”

Based on the reporting available, it appeared the State Department, through omission and changes in reporting requirements, attempted to modify what would be considered a human rights violation from the perspective of the U.S. government. However, as we have not been able to independently review the alleged document outlining the policy change, we have opted to leave this claim unrated. 

Sources

“Country Reports on Human Rights Practices.” United States Department of State, https://www.state.gov/reports-bureau-of-democracy-human-rights-and-labor/country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/. Accessed 26 Nov. 2025.

dam Taylor and Hannah Natanson. “Under Trump, U.S. Human Rights Reports Will Flag Abortion, Gender Care.” The Washington Post, 20 Nov. 2025, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/11/20/trump-rubio-human-rights-report/.

Daphne Psaledakis and Simon Lewis. “New US Rules Say Countries with DEI Policies Are Infringing Human Rights.” Reuters, 21 Nov. 2025, https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/trump-administration-reshapes-state-department-human-rights-report-2025-11-20/.

“Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing.” The White House, 21 Jan. 2025, https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-radical-and-wasteful-government-dei-programs-and-preferencing/.

Hansler, Jennifer. “State Department to Identify DEI Policies and Mass Migration as ‘Human Rights Infringements’ | CNN Politics.” CNN, 20 Nov. 2025, https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/20/politics/state-department-freedom-speech-human-rights.

“How Life Is Changing for Trans Americans under the Trump Administration.” PBS News, 24 Nov. 2025, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/how-life-is-changing-for-trans-americans-under-the-trump-administration.

“Israel, West Bank and Gaza.” United States Department of State, https://www.state.gov/reports/2024-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/israel-west-bank-and-gaza/. Accessed 26 Nov. 2025.

LGBTQ People ‘Erased’ from State Department’s 2024 Human Rights Report | Congressional Equality Caucus. 15 Aug. 2025, http://equality.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/lgbtq-people-erased-state-departments-2024-human-rights-report.

Mary Whitfill Roeloffs. “Abortion, DEI Now Considered Violations Of Human Rights, U.S. Officials Say.” Forbes, 21 Nov. 2025, https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryroeloffs/2025/11/21/abortion-dei-now-considered-violations-of-human-rights-us-officials-say/.

“Trump Administration Calls out Human Rights Records of Some Nations Accepting Deported Migrants.” AP News, 12 Aug. 2025, https://apnews.com/article/human-rights-report-deportations-free-speech-trump-83c42d2a096bf986aa6a222d0beeebb1.

“Trump Administration Moves Focus of Key Human Rights Report Away from Persecuted Identity Groups.” NBC News, 21 Nov. 2025, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/tump-administration-reshapes-focus-human-rights-report-minorities-dei-rcna245100.

Trump Administration Rewrites and Scales Back Annual Human Rights Report. 12 Aug. 2025, https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwy0lejvw25o.

US Says Countries with DEI Policies as Infringing Human Rights. 21 Nov. 2025, https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx24200d7y9o.

US State Department Debases Human Rights Diplomacy | Human Rights Watch. 24 Nov. 2025, https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/11/24/us-state-department-debases-human-rights-diplomacy.