Secretary of State
Nominated by Trump: 3-13-2018Who is Mike Pompeo?
As the nation’s top diplomat, Mike Pompeo is charged with protecting human rights and representing American values worldwide. But the former CIA Director opposes abortion access and gay marriage. Mike Pompeo also has a track record of attacking human rights; promoting discrimination; and advancing anti-women, anti-LGBTQ, and anti-Muslim beliefs. Pompeo has continued on that track since the Senate voted to confirm him as secretary of state on April 26, 2018.
“I believe that that child — however conceived [even through rape] — is a life and I want very much for that life to continue to exist.”
Tell Congress: Support women’s health worldwide. End the global gag rule.
Here is what Mike Pompeo controls
U.S. Department of State
The State Department leads U.S. foreign policy through diplomacy and represents American interests and values on the world stage.
Policies Mike Pompeo has helped bring about
Global Gag Rule
UNFPA
LGBTQ Rights
Planned Parenthood
Censorship
Background on Mike Pompeo
Holding Great Power over Women Worldwide
By overseeing the Office of Global Women’s Issues, global health programs, the Special Envoy for the Human Rights of LGBTI Persons, and more, Mike Pompeo has huge influence over the rights, health, and very lives of women and the communities that depend on them around the world.
LEARN MOREMike Pompeo is implementing the Trump-Pence administration’s deadly global gag rule and its expansion. Pompeo also is supporting the administration’s withholding of U.S. funding to UNFPA, one of the world’s most critical sources of contraception. As a member of Congress, Pompeo repeatedly voted in favor of these efforts.
New York MagazineIn the six years he served as a representative for Kansas, Mike Pompeo passed 32 measures to ban or restrict access to safe, legal abortion and block patients from care at Planned Parenthood health centers.
MediumTo advance the Trump-Pence administration’s foreign policy, Pompeo has aligned with anti-reproductive health leaders of nations known for human rights abuses. At a March 2019 UN conference on women, several such countries and the United States tried to weaken the 1995 Beijing Declaration, which provides a blueprint for developing the rights, health, and safety of women and girls worldwide — including protection from gender-based violence and access to the full range of reproductive health care.
Foreign PolicyThe Senate narrowly confirmed Mike Pompeo shortly after the U.S. State Department’s release of a heavily censored human rights report, which eliminated the reproductive rights section of the report.
Planned Parenthood NewsroomMike Pompeo is the current secretary of state, and is building on the agenda laid by his predecessor, Rex Tillerson. Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson approved the administration’s plan to expand the global gag rule, which Pompeo is now overseeing.
Human Rights WatchDuring Mike Pompeo’s confirmation hearing, senators raised strong concerns about his disturbing track record on human rights issues. Pompeo dodged questions about whether he’d censor reproductive and LGBTQ rights from the State Department’s annual Human Rights Report. He also stood by his position against marriage equality and refused to deny that he believes being gay is a “perversion.”
Planned Parenthood Action BlogMike Pompeo has consistently opposed LGBTQ rights through his support of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and his condemnation of the historic 2015 Obergefell ruling, which guaranteed marriage equality.
NBC News