Five Major Pivotal Events in the Attack on the Freedoms of Women and Girls in This Past Year.
Twelve months prior, women’s rights organisations were steeling themselves against a return of Donald Trump to office. The ensuing chaos was largely unforeseen. The sheer number and rapid pace of White House mandates issued from the White House were interpreted as a premeditated approach to paralyze through overload. The tactic proved effective – there was disarray, outrage, and weariness as organisations scrambled to plug the hole left by a freeze on international development funds. But the situation was about to worsen.
The Trump administration has been the central catalyst, supported by vigorous campaigning by deeply conservative factions using the moment to forge international alliances with ideological partners.
The anti-rights movement refers to a global network of policymakers, doctrinal establishments, and activist outfits 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 accomplish their goals by influencing policymakers, funding litigation, undermining global initiatives to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.
We analyze five instances that affected the safety, dignity and lives of women and girls.
The Dismantling of USAID
In the month of March, a month and a half following a prominent humanitarian funder is suspended, causing widespread distress, a top American diplomat confirms that the lion's share of the institution's work will be scrapped. Career diplomats, ex-presidents and humanitarian and health experts criticize the move, predicting that mortality will increase. Human rights advocates say that the dismantling of this institution is greater than a budgetary issue, it is a savage attack on human rights and family planning and reproductive care. Numerous groups say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by diminishing aid, especially in war zones. As the year ends, data shows how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from sickness, hunger, poor pregnancy healthcare, and abuse targeting females, with many more millions at risk. Additional key contributing countries announce their own austerity measures. A head of a worldwide campaign network says a choice to reduce international development funding is an attempt to placate a powerful partner.
Conservative Religious Groups Lobby at UN Women Meeting
In March, several Christian-right organisations meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a two-day conference held concurrently with the international conference on women's rights. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to counter the UN's progressive policies. They are in optimistic frame of mind as they celebrate shifts in US policy on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the gender equality forum with a grave caution that “the poison of patriarchy” is returning, after a study indicates that groups opposing progressive rights are deliberately weakening established norms 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 focused on the conservative family structures and national independence sparks alarm among rights advocates. In early May, a national leader and spouse open a large assembly to resist what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A soon after, another Pan-African conference on family values is held. Both events are graced by leading American and European conservative activists, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker urges African NGOs to push back against “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of global institutions. In the following month, a prominent church hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in an African nation, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Activists observe that the scale of their presence has increased markedly.
American Plan to Burn Birth Control
As health facilities across Africa report they are depleting their stocks of family planning supplies, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in July plans to dispose of a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a European depot. A leading family planning organization states that their destruction will deny a huge female population from family planning options, and lead to hundreds of thousands of unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions. The organization labels the plan an ideological decision “about exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A international emergency medical charity calls it “callous and reckless”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains in deadlock as the regional government are blocking usable products to be destroyed.
Broader Restrictions on Aid
Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, which halts US aid to groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is standard practice for certain US administrations. It came as no surprise when the rule was reinstated in January. The administration also reaffirmed membership in a pro-life declaration. But in the autumn, the US announces it intends to extend the restrictions to include governments and multilateral organisations in addition to NGOs, and to include DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) projects. Further specifics about the expansion of the rule are expected in early 2026. A director of a major health partnership says widening the scope will have “unimaginable effects”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that upcoming Washington funding agreements being discussed with African nations will become contingent upon adopting the expanded global gag.
