Forty-three countries are members of the Geneva Consensus Declaration (GCD). The new goal? Eighty countries represented by 2028. President of The Institute for Women’s Health (IWH) Valerie Huber told The Washington Stand at the sixth annual summit in the nation’s capital on Tuesday that she has high hopes for the future of the initiative that seeks to strengthen families. 

Rep. Mary Miller (R-Ill.), Senator James Lankford (R-Okla.), and Senator Steve Daines (R.-Mont.) also spoke to show their support. The countries of Mauritania, Argentina, and the Dominican Republic joined the agreement with their respective representatives present. 

Earlier this year, Daines shared that he will retire from the Senate and not seek re-election after 14 years of service in Congress. Daines announced at the GCD event for the first time publicly that Lankford will take over for him in spearheading this annual resolution. Daines was presented with the 2026 Distinguished Award of International Honor from the IWH on Tuesday for his longtime support and allyship of the GCD. The senator from Montana was the first member to build support for it in both the Senate and in the House and proposed the bicameral resolution to affirm the declaration. 

The GCD was first enacted in 2020, launched in a joint effort between IWH, the Department of State, and the Department of Health and Human Services. The declaration’s four main principles are “to secure meaningful health and development gains for women; to protect life at all stages; to defend the family as the fundamental unit of society; and to work together across the UN system to realize these values.” 

After its adoption in October 2020 under the first Trump administration, the Biden administration withdrew the U.S. from the agreement in January 2021. Just four days after President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January 2025, the State Department announced America would be rejoining the declaration. 

Huber recalled to TWS how she recognized the need for the GCD six years ago. “When we saw that women were being held hostage over ideological purposes, we knew that we needed to do something about that, and so President Trump supported us talking to other countries to begin the Geneva Consensus Declaration. I think it’s one of the most meaningful things in the world [relating to] these values.”

Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) addressed the crowd about the severe public health threat posed by chemical abortion. “I do believe that the mifepristone abortion pill poses an existential threat to the lives of our older children in the globe,” the congressman shared. “It starves the baby to death. It is antithetical to a pro-humanitarian, pro-feed-the-future mentality when you starve little children to death. … It also is horribly dangerous to women. One out of every 11 women take the abortion pill.”

One of the core tenets of the Geneva Consensus Declaration is its affirmation of the value of life. “There is no international right to abortion, nor any international obligation on the part of the States to finance or facilitate abortion” the official document states. 

Bethany Kozma, director of Global Affairs for the Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Secretariat for the Geneva Consensus Declaration, encouraged the coalition to continue to expand its reach. “Today is not only about celebrating what we have accomplished over the last six years,” she said. “It’s about what we do next.”

“We want to continue growing this coalition and welcoming new countries from every region of the world, but numbers alone are not enough,” Kozma emphasized. “We also want a coalition that is better coordinated, more impacted, and more effective — one where member nations support one another and work together to advance our shared principles internationally.”

Vince Haley, director of the Domestic Policy Council for the Trump administration, said that it is the responsibility of every country in the world to defend life. He additionally delivered a message on behalf of Trump: “My administration will always stand for the dignity of human life, the health and well-being of women, the strength of the family, and the right to defend these values and traditions.”