Five Major Landmark Occurrences in the Assault on the Rights of Women and Girls in the Year 2025.

In the previous year, groups dedicated to gender equality were bracing themselves for a Trump presidency sequel. The ensuing chaos was largely unforeseen. The flood and velocity of administrative decrees emanating from the White House were viewed as a intentional maneuver to induce a state of shock. The tactic proved effective – there was confusion, anger and exhaustion as organisations scrambled to plug the hole left by a freeze on international development funds. But this was only the precursor.

The American government has been the primary force, bolstered by relentless activism by far-right organisations capitalizing on the climate to solidify transnational relationships with ideological partners.

This opposition to progressive rights describes a worldwide alliance of political leaders, religious institutions, civil society groups as well as billionaire families and individuals that strive to weaken advances on numerous fronts. This covers reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.

They accomplish their goals by advocating to officials, financing legal challenges, sabotaging multilateral work to push for parity, disseminating propaganda, and supporting ideologically-matched groups.

We examine five instances that shaped the safety, dignity and lives of females globally.

The Demise of a Major Aid Agency

In the month of March, a month and a half following a major US aid agency is frozen, causing global disruption, a leading figure in the administration announces that the lion's share of the institution's work will be scrapped. Career diplomats, ex-presidents and aid and medical specialists denounce the action, warning that lives will be lost. Human rights advocates say that the closure of the organization is more than a funding crisis, it is a savage attack on human rights and family planning and reproductive care. Many organisations say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by reduced funding, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, evidence indicates how a tremendous loss of life has already occurred from disease, starvation, lack of access to maternal care and gender-based violence, with a far greater catastrophe looming. Another pair of leading funders initiate similar reductions. A director of a global justice organization says a decision to slash billions in overseas assistance is an attempt to placate a powerful partner.

Conservative Religious Groups Lobby at UN Women Meeting

In March, several conservative religious groups meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a strategic summit held concurrently with the annual UN Women gathering. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in high spirits as they welcome new Washington directives on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the women’s summit with a somber alert that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is resurgent, after a study indicates that anti-rights actors are systematically eroding historic agreements on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.

African ‘Family Values’ Conferences

Over the warmer months, a cluster of meetings in Africa themed around the traditional family and national sovereignty triggers anxiety among human rights defenders. In May, a head of state and partner open a significant conference to push back on what they label external influences undermining local norms. A few days later, another continental gathering on family values is held. Both events are participated in by leading American and European conservative activists, including heads of influential networks. One speaker calls on African NGOs to stand up to “radical global social engineering” of multilateral bodies. In the following month, a major religious institution hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in West Africa, an event that health activists say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Activists observe that the level of external participation has increased markedly.

American Plan to Burn Birth Control

As medical centers in numerous African countries report they are running out of contraceptives, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in midsummer plans to incinerate 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 millions of women and girls from access to birth control, and lead to a public health crisis of unwanted pregnancies. The organization labels the plan an ideological decision “about imposing an anti-rights agenda on the entire world” and “a calculated move to control fertility”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “heartless and dangerous”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains at a standstill as host nation officials will not allow the destruction of viable medicines.

Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy

Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, which cuts American funding for groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is standard practice for certain US administrations. It was widely expected when the rule was reinstated in the first month of the year. The administration also reaffirmed membership in a pro-life declaration. But in October, the US announces it intends to extend the restrictions to include sovereign states and UN agencies in addition to NGOs, and to encompass equity and inclusion initiatives. Additional information regarding the policy's widened application are likely forthcoming. A leader in global maternal health says broadening the policy will have “catastrophic impacts”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that new US aid packages being arranged with states on the continent will become dependent on agreeing to the expanded global gag.