A Quintet of Significant Developments in the Erosion of the Rights of Women and Girls in the Year 2025.

Twelve months prior, women’s rights organisations were steeling themselves against a new Trump administration. Few were prepared for. The sheer number and rapid pace of executive orders coming out of the White House were viewed as a premeditated approach to overwhelm and create panic. The tactic proved effective – there was confusion, anger and exhaustion as groups rushed to compensate for the loss left by a major funding freeze. But this was only the precursor.

The Trump administration has been the key driver, complemented by fervent lobbying efforts by far-right organisations using the moment to solidify transnational relationships with political allies.

Often termed the anti-gender movement describes a worldwide alliance of policymakers, doctrinal establishments, and activist outfits as well as affluent financiers and clans that work to dismantle progress across a wide spectrum of issues. This encompasses access to termination, gay and trans protections, alternative households, and factual sexual instruction.

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 review five episodes that influenced the welfare, autonomy, and survival of women and girls.

The Demise of a Major Aid Agency

In early spring, shortly after a major US aid agency is halted, causing global disruption, a leading figure in the administration reveals that over eighty percent of the body's projects will be terminated. Career diplomats, ex-presidents and humanitarian and health experts denounce the action, stating that people will die as a result. Activists say that the demise of the agency is greater than a budgetary issue, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and birth control and maternal healthcare. Many organisations say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by waning support, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, data shows how hundreds of thousands of people have already died 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 leader of an international advocacy group says a decision to slash billions in overseas assistance is a gesture of alignment with another government's agenda.

Conservative Religious Groups Lobby at UN Women Meeting

In the same month, several Christian-right organisations meet in an high-end hotel in NYC for a two-day conference held concurrently with the annual UN Women gathering. It is an forum to discuss methods on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in buoyant mood as they celebrate changes in American foreign policy on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the global conference with a stark warning that “the poison of patriarchy” is returning, after a report shows that opponents of gender equality are deliberately weakening historic agreements on core aspects of gender equality around the world.

Summits Promoting Conservative Norms

Over the warmer months, a series of conferences in Africa focused on the traditional family and national sovereignty sparks alarm among rights advocates. In the start of May, a president and first lady open a major forum to combat what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A soon after, another Pan-African conference on conservative ethics is held. Both events are participated in by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including leaders of well-known groups. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to stand up to “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of global institutions. In the following month, a major religious institution hosts a event focused on reinforcing families in West Africa, an event that reproductive rights advocates say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Activists observe that the level of external participation has grown significantly.

American Plan to Burn Birth Control

As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa report they are running out of contraceptives, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in midsummer plans to incinerate millions of dollars worth of contraceptives held in a storage facility in Belgium. A major reproductive health federation states that their elimination will deprive countless females from contraceptive supplies, and lead to hundreds of thousands of unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions. The organization labels the plan an ideological decision “about forcing a conservative worldview globally” and “a deliberate form of reproductive oppression”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “heartless and dangerous”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can be distributed to those in need, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains unresolved as local authorities will not allow perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.

Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy

Reviving the global gag rule, which halts US aid to groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is standard practice for 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 the autumn, the US announces it intends to expand the global gag rule to include governments and multilateral organisations in addition to NGOs, and to encompass equity and inclusion initiatives. Further specifics about the expansion of the rule are likely forthcoming. A expert in child welfare says broadening the policy will have “unimaginable effects”. Pro-choice activists fear that fresh American assistance deals being discussed with African nations will become dependent on agreeing to the broadened restrictions.