Five Defining Key Moments in the Assault on the Rights of Women and Girls in 2025.
A year ago, feminist advocacy groups were bracing themselves for a return of Donald Trump to office. Few were prepared for. The torrent and swiftness of White House mandates coming out of the White House were seen as a calculated strategy to induce a state of shock. In many ways it worked – there was bewilderment, fury, and fatigue as organisations scrambled to fill the gap left by a freeze on international development funds. But the situation was about to worsen.
The Trump administration has been the key driver, bolstered by vigorous campaigning by ultra-conservative groups seizing the opportunity to strengthen global ties with like-minded governments.
This opposition to progressive rights refers to a global network of government figures, churches, and advocacy collectives as well as billionaire families and individuals that work to dismantle advances on numerous fronts. These include access to termination, gay and trans protections, alternative households, and factual sexual instruction.
They accomplish their goals by influencing policymakers, funding litigation, undermining global initiatives to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.
We review five junctures that shaped the safety, dignity and lives of girls and women.
USAID Effectively Dismantled
In the month of March, shortly after a major US aid agency is halted, causing international chaos, a leading figure in the administration announces that a vast majority of the institution's work will be scrapped. Career diplomats, ex-presidents and aid and medical specialists denounce the action, stating that people will die as a result. Rights defenders say that the dismantling of this institution is more than a funding crisis, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and family planning and reproductive care. Numerous groups say the impact on girls and women will be severe by reduced funding, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, statistics reveal how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from disease, starvation, lack of access to maternal care and gender-based violence, with a far greater catastrophe looming. Additional key contributing countries initiate similar reductions. A leader of an international advocacy group 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 March, several Christian-right organisations meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a biannual gathering held in parallel with the UN's flagship gender equality meeting. It is an chance to exchange strategies 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 UN secretary general opens the global conference with a grave caution that “the venom of male dominance” is resurgent, after a report shows that groups opposing progressive rights are deliberately weakening historic agreements on core aspects of gender equality around the world.
Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa
Over the warmer months, a sequence of gatherings in Africa themed around the conventional household and state autonomy sparks alarm among human rights defenders. In early May, a president and first lady open a major forum to push back on what they label external influences undermining local norms. A soon after, another regional summit on conservative ethics is held. Both events are graced by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to resist “radical global social engineering” of global institutions. In the following month, a major religious institution hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in the region, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Advocates remark that the level of external participation has expanded considerably.
Contraceptive Destruction Order
As health facilities across Africa report they are facing shortages of birth control, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in July plans to destroy a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a European depot. A global sexual health network states that their incineration will prevent countless females from family planning options, and lead to a public health crisis of unwanted pregnancies. The organization labels the plan an politically-motivated move “about imposing an anti-rights agenda on the entire world” and “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A renowned doctors' group calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. 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 local authorities are blocking usable products to be destroyed.
‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded
Reviving the global gag rule, which cuts American funding for groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is commonplace under certain US administrations. It came as no surprise when the policy was restored in the first month of the year. The administration also signed onto a conservative consensus document. But in October, the US announces it intends to broaden the scope of the policy to include national governments and international bodies in addition to NGOs, and to include DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) projects. More details on the broader enforcement are anticipated next year. A leader in global maternal health says broadening the policy will have “unimaginable effects”. Pro-choice activists fear that new US aid packages being discussed with African nations will become dependent on agreeing to the broadened restrictions.
