Five Defining Landmark Occurrences in the Attack on the Rights of Women and Girls in the Year 2025.
Twelve months prior, organisations advocating for women's rights were steeling themselves against a new Trump administration. Few were prepared for. The flood and velocity of executive orders emanating from the White House were interpreted as a calculated strategy to cause confusion and fear. This strategy had its intended impact – there was bewilderment, fury, and fatigue as organisations scrambled to address the shortfall left by a sudden aid suspension. But that was just the beginning.
The American government has been the primary force, complemented by fervent lobbying efforts by religious fundamentalist networks seizing the opportunity to forge international alliances with ideological partners.
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. This covers reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.
They accomplish their goals by influencing policymakers, funding litigation, undermining global initiatives to advance equality, spreading disinformation, and funding non-profit organisations.
We review five instances that shaped the safety, dignity and lives of girls and women.
The Dismantling of USAID
In the month of March, six weeks after a prominent humanitarian funder is frozen, causing turmoil around the world, a senior US official reveals that over eighty percent of the agency’s programmes will be eliminated. US diplomats, former presidents and relief and public health authorities condemn the news, warning that fatalities will ensue. Human rights advocates say that the dismantling of this institution is not just a financial shortfall, it is a savage attack on human rights and birth control and maternal healthcare. A multitude of agencies say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by shrinking assistance, especially in conflict areas. As the year ends, reports confirm how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from disease, starvation, lack of access to maternal care and gender-based violence, with many more millions at risk. Additional key contributing countries follow with their own cuts. A leader of an international advocacy group says a choice to reduce international development funding is a gesture of alignment with another government's agenda.
Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference
In March, several conservative religious groups 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 forum to discuss methods on how to counter the UN's progressive policies. They are in buoyant mood as they applaud changes in American foreign policy on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the global conference with a somber alert that “the venom of male dominance” is returning, after a analysis demonstrates that anti-rights actors are systematically eroding historic agreements on core aspects of gender equality around the world.
Summits Promoting Conservative Norms
Over the warmer months, a cluster of meetings in Africa centered on the conventional household and state autonomy sparks alarm among equality campaigners. In May, a president and first lady open a large assembly to push back on what they label external influences undermining local norms. A shortly thereafter, another Pan-African conference on conservative ethics is held. Both events are attended by leading American and European conservative activists, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to push back against “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of international organizations. 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. Campaigners note that the scale of their presence has grown significantly.
Contraceptive Destruction Order
As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa report they are facing shortages of birth control, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in midsummer plans to incinerate a vast stockpile of birth control held in a storage facility in Belgium. A leading family planning organization states that their incineration will prevent 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 exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “a calculated move to control fertility”. A renowned doctors' group calls it “callous and reckless”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains in deadlock as host nation officials refuse to permit usable products to be destroyed.
‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded
Reviving the global gag rule, which cuts American funding for groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is typical of certain US administrations. It was widely expected when the ban was reimposed in January. The administration also reaffirmed membership in a pro-life declaration. But in the autumn, the US announces it intends to expand the global gag rule to include governments and multilateral organisations in addition to NGOs, and to cover diversity programmes. Additional information regarding the policy's widened application are anticipated next year. A leader in global maternal health says widening the scope will have “devastating consequences”. Pro-choice activists fear that upcoming Washington funding agreements being arranged with states on the continent will become dependent on agreeing to the broadened restrictions.
