A Quintet of Pivotal Events in the Assault on the Freedoms of Women and Girls in 2025.
A year ago, groups dedicated to gender equality were steeling themselves against a new Trump administration. Hardly anyone anticipated. The sheer number and rapid pace of presidential directives originating in the White House were seen as a premeditated approach to cause confusion and fear. The tactic proved effective – there was bewilderment, fury, and fatigue as groups rushed to compensate for the loss left by a abrupt cessation of financial support. But this was only the precursor.
The American government has been the central catalyst, supported by fervent lobbying efforts by religious fundamentalist networks exploiting the situation to build worldwide connections with sympathetic regimes.
The anti-rights movement refers to a global network of elected officials, faith-based bodies, non-governmental organisations as well as billionaire families and individuals that strive to weaken progress across a wide spectrum of issues. This encompasses reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.
They pursue this agenda via pressuring states, backing lawsuits, disparaging UN work to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.
We examine five episodes that affected the safety, dignity and lives of girls and women.
USAID Effectively Dismantled
In March, a month and a half following a prominent humanitarian funder is its funds are blocked, causing international chaos, a senior US official confirms that over eighty percent of the body's projects will be terminated. US diplomats, past leaders and humanitarian and health experts denounce the action, cautioning that people will die as a result. Activists say that the closure of the organization is greater than a budgetary issue, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and access to contraception and reproductive health services. Numerous groups say the impact on girls and women will be severe by diminishing aid, especially in conflict areas. As the year ends, data shows how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from sickness, hunger, poor pregnancy healthcare, and abuse targeting females, with many more millions at risk. Another pair of leading funders follow with their own cuts. A head of a worldwide campaign network 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 March, several faith-based advocacy networks meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a strategic summit held concurrently with the UN's flagship gender equality meeting. It is an forum to discuss methods on how to counter the UN's progressive policies. They are in buoyant mood as they welcome shifts in US policy on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the gender equality forum with a stark warning that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is back, after a study indicates that groups opposing progressive rights are systematically eroding 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 focused on the conservative family structures and national independence sparks alarm among rights advocates. In early May, a head of state and partner open a major forum to push back on what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A shortly thereafter, another regional summit on traditional morals is held. Both events are attended by leading Western campaigners against gender ideology, including leaders of well-known groups. One speaker calls on African NGOs to stand up to “radical global social engineering” of global institutions. In the following month, a global faith group hosts a family strengthening conference in an African nation, an event that reproductive rights advocates say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Activists observe that the extent of foreign involvement has grown significantly.
American Plan to Burn Birth Control
As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa report they are facing shortages of birth control, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in midsummer plans to incinerate a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a European depot. A leading family planning organization states that their incineration will prevent millions of women and girls from access to birth control, and lead to hundreds of thousands of unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions. The organization labels the plan an ideological decision “about forcing a conservative worldview globally” and “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “callous and reckless”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can be distributed to those in need, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains at a standstill as local authorities are blocking usable products to be destroyed.
‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded
Reviving the global gag rule, which halts US aid to groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is typical of certain US administrations. It came as no surprise when the rule was reinstated in the first month of the year. The administration also signed onto a conservative consensus document. But in the autumn, the US announces it intends to expand the global gag rule to include national governments and international bodies in addition to NGOs, and to cover diversity programmes. Additional information regarding the expansion of the rule are anticipated next year. A leader in global maternal health says broadening the policy will have “unimaginable effects”. Pro-choice activists fear that fresh American assistance deals being arranged with states on the continent will become dependent on agreeing to the expanded global gag.
