Five Critical Key Moments in the Attack on the Rights of Women and Girls in the Year 2025.
This time last year, organisations advocating for women's rights were anticipating a second Trump term. Scarcely anyone expected. The torrent and swiftness of presidential directives emanating from the White House were seen as a calculated strategy to overwhelm and create panic. To a large extent, it succeeded – there was bewilderment, fury, and fatigue as groups rushed to fill the gap left by a sudden aid suspension. But that was just the beginning.
The US administration has been the main instigator, supported by intense advocacy work by far-right organisations exploiting the situation to strengthen global ties with political allies.
The anti-rights movement signifies a transnational grouping of elected officials, faith-based bodies, non-governmental organisations as well as ultra-rich backers and donors that strive to weaken progress across a wide spectrum of issues. Areas targeted involve reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.
They achieve this through advocating to officials, financing legal challenges, sabotaging multilateral work to promote fairness, circulating falsehoods, and resourcing aligned NGOs.
We look at five episodes that shaped the safety, dignity and lives of females globally.
The Dismantling of USAID
In the month of March, shortly after a major US aid agency is its funds are blocked, causing global disruption, a leading figure in the administration reveals that nearly all of the agency’s programmes will be eliminated. American foreign service officers, past leaders and humanitarian and health experts condemn the news, predicting that fatalities will ensue. Activists say that the closure of the organization is more than a funding crisis, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and access to contraception and reproductive health services. Numerous groups say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by diminishing aid, especially in war zones. As the year ends, statistics reveal how a tremendous loss of life has already occurred from sickness, hunger, poor pregnancy healthcare, and abuse targeting females, with a far greater catastrophe looming. Another pair of leading funders initiate similar reductions. A head of a worldwide campaign network says a decision to slash billions in overseas assistance is a move to appease a political ally.
Christian-Right Groups Raise Voices During UN Women Summit
In March, several Christian-right organisations meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a biannual gathering held in parallel with the annual UN Women gathering. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in buoyant mood as they applaud shifts in US policy on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the global conference with a stark warning that “the poison of patriarchy” is resurgent, after a analysis demonstrates that groups opposing progressive rights are actively undermining historic agreements on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.
African ‘Family Values’ Conferences
Over the warmer months, a sequence of gatherings in Africa themed around the traditional family and national sovereignty raises concerns among rights advocates. In May, a national leader and spouse open a major forum to resist what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A soon after, another Pan-African conference on conservative ethics is held. Both events are attended by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including heads of influential networks. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to resist “radical global social engineering” of global institutions. In June, a major religious institution hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in West Africa, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Activists observe that the level of external participation has expanded considerably.
American Plan to Burn Birth Control
As medical centers in numerous African countries report they are facing shortages of birth control, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in July plans to incinerate millions of dollars worth of contraceptives held in a European depot. A global sexual health network states that their elimination will deprive countless females from family planning options, and lead to hundreds of thousands of unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions. The organization labels the plan an politically-motivated move “about forcing a conservative worldview globally” and “a deliberate form of reproductive oppression”. A international emergency medical charity calls it “heartless and dangerous”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can be distributed to those in need, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains at a standstill as the regional government will not allow usable products to be destroyed.
‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded
Reviving the global gag rule, which halts US aid to groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is standard practice for certain US administrations. It was widely expected when the ban was reimposed in the first month of the year. The administration also rejoined an international anti-abortion agreement. But in October, the US announces it intends to expand the global gag rule to include sovereign states and UN agencies in addition to NGOs, and to cover diversity programmes. More details on the policy's widened application are likely forthcoming. A expert in child welfare says extending the reach will have “catastrophic impacts”. Pro-choice activists fear that new US aid packages being discussed with African nations will become contingent upon adopting the broadened restrictions.
