Five Defining Significant Developments in the Challenge to the Rights of Women and Girls in 2025.
Twelve months prior, groups dedicated to gender equality were anticipating a Trump presidency sequel. The ensuing chaos was largely unforeseen. The sheer number and rapid pace of White House mandates coming out of the White House were regarded as a premeditated approach to paralyze through overload. This strategy had its intended impact – there was confusion, anger and exhaustion as networks struggled to fill the gap left by a freeze on international development funds. But that was just the beginning.
The US administration has been the key driver, aided by fervent lobbying efforts by ultra-conservative groups exploiting the situation to build worldwide connections with sympathetic regimes.
The anti-rights movement refers to a global network of political leaders, religious institutions, civil society groups as well as wealthy philanthropists and dynasties that strive to weaken forward movement on multiple topics. These include reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.
They do this by lobbying governments, supporting court cases, discrediting international efforts to push for parity, disseminating propaganda, and supporting ideologically-matched groups.
We look at five moments that impacted the welfare, autonomy, and survival of women and girls.
USAID Dismantled
In March, six weeks after a key American development organization is its funds are blocked, causing global disruption, a top American diplomat states that a vast majority of the institution's work will be scrapped. American foreign service officers, former presidents and relief and public health authorities denounce the action, predicting that lives will be lost. Activists say that the demise of the agency is greater than a budgetary issue, it is a savage attack on human rights and access to contraception and reproductive health services. A multitude of agencies say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by waning support, especially in conflict areas. As the year ends, data shows how hundreds of thousands of people have already died from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with many more millions at risk. Additional key contributing countries initiate similar reductions. A director of a global justice organization says a decision to slash billions in overseas assistance is a gesture of alignment with another government's agenda.
Christian-Right Groups Raise Voices During UN Women Summit
In March, several Christian-right organisations meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a strategic summit held alongside the international conference on women's rights. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in high spirits as they welcome changes in American foreign policy on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the women’s summit with a stark warning that “the venom of male dominance” is back, after a analysis demonstrates that groups opposing progressive rights are systematically eroding established norms on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.
Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa
Over the summer, a sequence of gatherings in Africa centered on the conservative family structures and national independence sparks alarm among rights advocates. In the start of May, a national leader and spouse open a major forum to resist what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A soon after, another regional summit on family values is held. Both events are attended by leading Western campaigners against gender ideology, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker urges African NGOs to push back against “radical global social engineering” of multilateral bodies. In the following month, a major religious institution hosts a event focused on reinforcing families in an African nation, an event that health activists say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Advocates remark that the level of external participation has expanded considerably.
Contraceptive Destruction Order
As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa report they are running out of contraceptives, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in midsummer plans to dispose of a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a storage facility in Belgium. A major reproductive health federation states that their elimination will deprive countless females from access to birth control, and lead to a public health crisis of unwanted pregnancies. 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 “heartless and dangerous”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains at a standstill as the regional government will not allow usable products to be destroyed.
Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy
Reinstating the Mexico City Policy, 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 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 broaden the scope of the policy to include sovereign states and UN agencies in addition to NGOs, and to include DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) projects. Additional information regarding the policy's widened application are likely forthcoming. A expert in child welfare says widening the scope will have “catastrophic impacts”. Pro-choice activists fear that upcoming Washington funding agreements being discussed with African nations will become dependent on agreeing to the expanded global gag.
