A Quintet of Key Moments in the Attack on the Rights of Women and Girls in the Year 2025.
This time last year, women’s rights organisations were anticipating a new Trump administration. The ensuing chaos was largely unforeseen. The sheer number and rapid pace of executive orders originating in the White House were interpreted as a calculated strategy to overwhelm and create panic. The tactic proved effective – there was bewilderment, fury, and fatigue as organisations scrambled to fill the gap left by a major funding freeze. But this merely marked the opening act.
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 describes a worldwide alliance of elected officials, faith-based bodies, non-governmental organisations as well as affluent financiers and clans that work to dismantle gains in a variety of areas. This encompasses access to termination, gay and trans protections, alternative households, and factual sexual instruction.
They pursue this agenda via influencing policymakers, funding litigation, undermining global initiatives to promote fairness, circulating falsehoods, and resourcing aligned NGOs.
We look at five junctures that affected the welfare, autonomy, and survival of women and girls.
USAID Dismantled
In the month of March, shortly after a prominent humanitarian funder is its funds are blocked, causing turmoil around the world, a leading figure in the administration reveals that the lion's share of the institution's work will be scrapped. American foreign service officers, past leaders and aid and medical specialists condemn the news, stating that people will die as a result. Rights defenders say that the closure of the organization is more than a funding crisis, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and family planning and reproductive care. A multitude of agencies say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by reduced funding, especially in war zones. As the year ends, statistics reveal how a tremendous loss of life has already occurred from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with millions more to come. Additional key contributing countries follow with their own cuts. A director of a global justice organization says a move to cut foreign aid drastically is a gesture of alignment with another government's agenda.
Christian-Right Groups Raise Voices During UN Women Summit
In March, several conservative religious groups meet in an high-end hotel in NYC for a strategic summit held in parallel with the UN's flagship gender equality meeting. It is an forum to discuss methods on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in optimistic frame of mind as they celebrate changes in American foreign policy on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the global conference with a stark warning that “the poison of patriarchy” is returning, after a study indicates that anti-rights actors are actively undermining established norms on core aspects of gender equality around the world.
Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa
Over the warmer months, a series of conferences in Africa themed around the traditional family and national sovereignty raises concerns among equality campaigners. In the start of May, a head of state and partner open a large assembly to combat what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A few days later, another Pan-African conference on family values is held. Both events are graced by leading American and European conservative activists, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker calls on African NGOs to stand up to “international liberal agenda” of global institutions. In June, a global faith group hosts a family strengthening conference in the region, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Campaigners note that the level of external participation has increased markedly.
Contraceptive Destruction Order
As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa report they are running out of contraceptives, including emergency kits for survivors of sexual violence, the US announces in midsummer plans to destroy millions of dollars worth of contraceptives held in a European depot. A leading family planning organization states that their elimination will deprive countless females from contraceptive supplies, and lead to a surge in unplanned pregnancies and dangerous terminations. The organization labels the plan an dogmatic choice “about exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “a deliberate form of reproductive oppression”. A renowned doctors' group calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can be distributed to those in need, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains unresolved as local authorities refuse to permit perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.
Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy
Reviving the global gag rule, 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 rejoined an international anti-abortion agreement. But in the autumn, the US announces it intends to extend the restrictions to include sovereign states and UN agencies in addition to NGOs, and to encompass equity and inclusion initiatives. Further specifics about the policy's widened application are likely forthcoming. A leader in global maternal health says extending the reach will have “unimaginable effects”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that upcoming Washington funding agreements being discussed with African nations will become dependent on agreeing to the expanded global gag.