Five Major Pivotal Events in the Attack on the Rights of Women and Girls in the Year 2025.
A year ago, organisations advocating for women's rights were bracing themselves for a second Trump term. Few were prepared for. The sheer number and rapid pace of presidential directives coming out of the White House were seen as a calculated strategy to induce a state of shock. This strategy had its intended impact – there was chaos, resentment, and burnout as groups rushed to address the shortfall left by a major funding freeze. But that was just the beginning.
The Trump administration has been the main instigator, aided by intense advocacy work by deeply conservative factions capitalizing on the climate to strengthen global ties with political allies.
This opposition to progressive rights describes a worldwide alliance of elected officials, faith-based bodies, non-governmental organisations as well as ultra-rich backers and donors that work to dismantle 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 advance equality, spreading disinformation, and funding non-profit organisations.
We look at five episodes that shaped the safety, dignity and lives of women and girls.
The Demise of a Major Aid Agency
In March, shortly after a prominent humanitarian funder is its funds are blocked, causing international chaos, a leading figure in the administration confirms that the lion's share of the agency’s programmes will be eliminated. US diplomats, ex-presidents and aid and medical specialists denounce the action, predicting that mortality will increase. Human rights advocates say that the closure of the organization is not just a financial shortfall, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and access to contraception and reproductive health services. Many organisations say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by shrinking assistance, especially in conflict areas. As the year ends, evidence indicates how hundreds of thousands of people have already died from sickness, hunger, poor pregnancy healthcare, and abuse targeting females, with many more millions at risk. Another pair of leading funders proceed with parallel slashes. 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.
Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference
In the same month, several Christian-right organisations meet in an high-end hotel in NYC for a two-day conference 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 applaud shifts in US policy on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the women’s summit with a grave caution that “the venom of male dominance” is returning, after a report shows that groups opposing progressive rights are systematically eroding longstanding consensus on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.
Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa
Over the summer, a series of conferences in Africa focused on the traditional family and national sovereignty triggers anxiety among human rights defenders. In the start of May, a president and first lady open a significant conference to push back on what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A few days later, another continental gathering on family values is held. Both events are attended by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including heads of influential networks. One speaker urges African NGOs to stand up to “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of multilateral bodies. In June, a global faith group hosts a event focused on reinforcing families in an African nation, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Advocates remark that the scale of their presence has increased markedly.
American Plan to Burn Birth Control
As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa report they are facing shortages of birth control, including emergency kits for survivors of sexual violence, the US announces in July plans to destroy a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a warehouse in Europe. A leading family planning organization states that their incineration will prevent a huge female population from contraceptive supplies, 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 deliberate form of reproductive oppression”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains unresolved as the regional government refuse to permit perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.
‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded
Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, which halts US aid to groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is commonplace under certain US administrations. It was anticipated when the policy was restored 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 include DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) projects. Further specifics about the expansion of the rule are anticipated next year. A director of a major health partnership says widening the scope will have “devastating consequences”. Pro-choice activists fear that upcoming Washington funding agreements being discussed with African nations will become conditional on accepting the expanded global gag.
