Five Defining Key Moments in the Attack on the Rights of Women and Girls in 2025.
Twelve months prior, feminist advocacy groups were anticipating a second Trump term. Hardly anyone anticipated. The flood and velocity of executive orders issued from the White House were seen as a premeditated approach to paralyze through overload. The tactic proved effective – there was chaos, resentment, and burnout as groups rushed to compensate for the loss left by a abrupt cessation of financial support. But the situation was about to worsen.
The American government has been the main instigator, complemented by intense advocacy work by deeply conservative factions exploiting the situation to strengthen global ties with like-minded governments.
The movement against gender equality denotes an international coalition of political leaders, religious institutions, civil society groups as well as billionaire families and individuals that work to dismantle forward movement on multiple topics. These include abortion, LGBTQ rights, trans rights, non-traditional family structures and comprehensive sexuality education.
They pursue this agenda via lobbying governments, supporting court cases, discrediting international efforts to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.
We look at five episodes that influenced the welfare, autonomy, and survival of the female population.
USAID Effectively Dismantled
In March, a month and a half following a key American development organization is frozen, causing global disruption, a senior US official announces that over eighty percent of the organization's initiatives will be axed. US diplomats, former presidents and humanitarian and health experts denounce the action, stating that lives will be lost. Rights defenders say that the closure of the organization is more than a funding crisis, it is a savage attack on human rights and access to contraception and reproductive health services. Many organisations say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by diminishing aid, especially in war zones. As the year ends, reports confirm how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with many more millions at risk. Another pair of leading funders announce their own austerity measures. A head of a worldwide campaign network says a decision to slash billions in overseas assistance is an attempt to placate a powerful partner.
Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference
In the same month, several conservative religious groups meet in an high-end hotel in NYC for a biannual gathering held alongside the international conference on women's rights. It is an forum to discuss methods on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in high spirits as they applaud changes in American foreign policy on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the gender equality forum with a stark warning that “the venom of male dominance” is back, after a study indicates that groups opposing progressive rights are deliberately weakening established norms on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.
African ‘Family Values’ Conferences
Over the summer, a cluster of meetings in Africa themed around the traditional family and national sovereignty raises concerns among equality campaigners. In May, a president and first lady open a large assembly to combat what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A few days later, another regional summit on family values is held. Both events are participated in by leading American and European conservative activists, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker calls on African NGOs to resist “radical global social engineering” of multilateral bodies. In the following month, a prominent church 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. Campaigners note that the extent of foreign involvement has grown significantly.
US Threat to Destroy Contraceptives
As health facilities across Africa report they are depleting their stocks of family planning supplies, including emergency kits for survivors of sexual violence, the US announces in July plans to destroy millions of dollars worth of contraceptives held in a European depot. A leading family planning organization states that their incineration will prevent millions of women and girls from family planning options, and lead to a surge in unplanned pregnancies and dangerous terminations. 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 international emergency medical charity calls it “heartless and dangerous”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains unresolved as host nation officials are blocking perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.
‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded
Reinstating the Mexico City Policy, which prohibits Washington's support 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 ban was reimposed in January. The administration also signed onto a conservative consensus document. 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 cover diversity programmes. More details on the broader enforcement are likely forthcoming. A leader in global maternal health says extending the reach will have “unimaginable effects”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that fresh American assistance deals being arranged with states on the continent will become contingent upon adopting the new, wider policy.
