Five Major Pivotal Events in the Attack on the Rights of Women and Girls in the Year 2025.
Twelve months prior, groups dedicated to gender equality were preparing for a return of Donald Trump to office. Hardly anyone anticipated. The sheer number and rapid pace of presidential directives coming out of the White House were regarded as a calculated strategy to cause confusion and fear. The tactic proved effective – there was disarray, outrage, and weariness as groups rushed to compensate for the loss left by a major funding freeze. But this was only the precursor.
The Trump administration has been the central catalyst, aided by vigorous campaigning by ultra-conservative groups using the moment to forge international alliances with like-minded governments.
The anti-rights movement refers to a global network of policymakers, doctrinal establishments, and activist outfits as well as affluent financiers and clans that aim to roll back forward movement on multiple topics. Areas targeted involve abortion, LGBTQ rights, trans rights, non-traditional family structures and comprehensive sexuality education.
They achieve this through pressuring states, backing lawsuits, disparaging UN work to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.
We analyze five episodes that affected the safety, dignity and lives of women and girls.
The Dismantling of USAID
In March, shortly after a major US aid agency is suspended, causing widespread distress, a top American diplomat announces that a vast majority of the institution's work will be scrapped. US diplomats, past leaders and aid and medical specialists criticize the move, cautioning that fatalities will ensue. Human rights advocates say that the demise of the agency is more than a funding crisis, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and family planning and reproductive care. Many organisations say females will bear the brunt by diminishing aid, especially in conflict areas. As the year ends, reports confirm how hundreds of thousands of people have already died from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with millions more to come. Two other major donor nations announce their own austerity measures. A director of a global justice organization says a choice to reduce international development funding is a move to appease a political ally.
Christian-Right Groups Raise Voices During UN Women Summit
In the same month, several Christian-right organisations meet in an high-end hotel in NYC for a two-day conference held alongside the international conference on women's rights. It is an chance to exchange strategies on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in high spirits as they welcome shifts in US policy on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the global conference with a stark warning that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is back, after a analysis demonstrates that groups opposing progressive rights are deliberately weakening longstanding consensus on core aspects of gender equality around the world.
Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa
Over the summer, a sequence of gatherings in Africa centered on the traditional family and national sovereignty sparks alarm among rights advocates. In early May, a national leader and spouse open a significant conference to push back on what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A shortly thereafter, another Pan-African conference on conservative ethics is held. Both events are graced by leading Western campaigners against gender ideology, including heads of influential networks. One speaker calls on African NGOs to stand up to “international liberal agenda” of multilateral bodies. In June, a global faith group hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in an African nation, an event that health activists say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Activists observe that the extent of foreign involvement has grown significantly.
American Plan to Burn Birth Control
As medical centers in numerous African countries report they are depleting their stocks of family planning supplies, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in midsummer plans to dispose of millions of dollars worth of contraceptives held in a European depot. A leading family planning organization states that their elimination will deprive millions of women and girls from contraceptive supplies, and lead to a public health crisis of unwanted pregnancies. The organization labels the plan an politically-motivated move “about exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains at a standstill as the regional government are blocking the destruction of viable medicines.
Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy
Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, which halts US aid to groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is typical of certain US administrations. It came as no surprise when the policy was restored in the first month of the year. The administration also signed onto a conservative consensus document. But in October, the US announces it intends to broaden the scope of the policy to include governments and multilateral organisations in addition to NGOs, and to cover diversity programmes. Further specifics about the expansion of the rule are expected in early 2026. A expert in child welfare says extending the reach will have “devastating consequences”. Pro-choice activists fear that upcoming Washington funding agreements being negotiated with countries in Africa will become conditional on accepting the expanded global gag.
