Five Landmark Occurrences in the Attack on the Freedoms of Women and Girls in 2025.
Twelve months prior, feminist advocacy groups were anticipating a new Trump administration. Few were prepared for. The volume and speed of executive orders coming out of the White House were interpreted as a intentional maneuver to paralyze through overload. The tactic proved effective – there was bewilderment, fury, and fatigue as networks struggled to plug the hole left by a sudden aid suspension. But this merely marked the opening act.
The Trump administration has been the key driver, aided by vigorous campaigning by religious fundamentalist networks seizing the opportunity to forge international alliances with political allies.
The anti-rights movement refers to a global network of political leaders, religious institutions, civil society groups as well as affluent financiers and clans that aim to roll back advances on numerous fronts. This covers abortion, LGBTQ rights, trans rights, non-traditional family structures and comprehensive sexuality education.
They do this by pressuring states, backing lawsuits, disparaging UN work to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.
We look at five junctures that affected the security, respect, and well-being of women and girls.
USAID Effectively Dismantled
In the month of March, shortly after a major US aid agency is halted, causing global disruption, a senior US official confirms that over eighty percent of the institution's work will be scrapped. US diplomats, past leaders and relief and public health authorities decry the decision, predicting that lives will be lost. Activists say that the closure of the organization is greater than a budgetary issue, it is a savage attack on human rights and access to contraception and reproductive health services. Numerous groups say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by reduced funding, especially in war zones. As the year ends, data shows how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from disease, starvation, lack of access to maternal care and gender-based violence, with millions more to come. Additional key contributing countries follow with their own cuts. A head of a worldwide campaign network says a decision to slash billions in overseas assistance is a gesture of alignment with another government's agenda.
Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference
In the same month, several Christian-right organisations meet in an high-end hotel in NYC for a strategic summit held concurrently with the international conference on women's rights. It is an chance to exchange strategies on how to counter the UN's progressive policies. They are in high spirits as they applaud shifts in US policy on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the global conference with a grave caution that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is back, after a analysis demonstrates that groups opposing progressive rights are actively undermining longstanding consensus on core aspects of gender equality around the world.
Summits Promoting Conservative Norms
Over the warmer months, a cluster of meetings in Africa centered on the conventional household and state autonomy sparks alarm among rights advocates. In May, a president and first lady open a large assembly to resist what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A shortly thereafter, another Pan-African conference on conservative ethics is held. Both events are graced by leading Western campaigners against gender ideology, including leaders of well-known groups. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to push back against “radical global social engineering” of international organizations. In the following month, a prominent church hosts a family strengthening conference in the region, an event that reproductive rights advocates say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Activists observe that the extent of foreign involvement has grown significantly.
US Threat to Destroy Contraceptives
As health facilities across Africa report they are running out of contraceptives, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in July plans to incinerate a vast stockpile of birth control held in a warehouse in Europe. A leading family planning organization states that their destruction will deny millions of women and girls from contraceptive supplies, and lead to a surge in unplanned pregnancies and dangerous terminations. The organization labels the plan an dogmatic choice “about forcing a conservative worldview globally” and “a calculated move to control fertility”. A international emergency medical charity calls it “heartless and dangerous”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains at a standstill as local authorities refuse to permit perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.
Broader Restrictions on Aid
Reviving the global gag rule, which prohibits Washington's support for groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is commonplace under certain US administrations. It was widely expected when the ban was reimposed 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 expand the global gag rule to include sovereign states and UN agencies in addition to NGOs, and to cover diversity programmes. Further specifics about the broader enforcement are expected in early 2026. A director of a major health partnership says extending the reach will have “catastrophic impacts”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that upcoming Washington funding agreements being arranged with states on the continent will become dependent on agreeing to the expanded global gag.
