Five Critical Pivotal Events in the Challenge to the Rights of Women and Girls in 2025.
Twelve months prior, feminist advocacy groups were anticipating a new Trump administration. The ensuing chaos was largely unforeseen. The torrent and swiftness of White House mandates issued from the White House were viewed as a calculated strategy to paralyze through overload. To a large extent, it succeeded – there was disarray, outrage, and weariness as groups rushed to plug the hole left by a major funding freeze. But this was only the precursor.
The US administration has been the central catalyst, complemented by relentless activism by religious fundamentalist networks using the moment to strengthen global ties with ideological partners.
This opposition to progressive rights signifies a transnational grouping of government figures, churches, and advocacy collectives as well as wealthy philanthropists and dynasties that strive to weaken advances on numerous fronts. This encompasses reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.
They achieve this through advocating to officials, financing legal challenges, sabotaging multilateral work to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.
We look at five instances that impacted the welfare, autonomy, and survival of girls and women.
USAID Dismantled
In the month of March, six weeks after a major US aid agency is frozen, causing global disruption, a leading figure in the administration states that a vast majority of the organization's initiatives will be axed. Career diplomats, former presidents and aid and medical specialists denounce the action, cautioning that people will die as a result. 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 the impact on girls and women will be severe by reduced funding, especially in war zones. 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 a far greater catastrophe looming. Additional key contributing countries proceed with parallel slashes. A director of a global justice organization says a decision to slash billions in overseas assistance is a gesture of alignment with another government's agenda.
Christian-Right Groups Raise Voices During UN Women Summit
In March, several conservative religious groups meet in an high-end hotel in NYC for a two-day conference held in parallel with the annual UN Women gathering. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in high spirits as they applaud changes in American foreign policy on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the global conference with a somber alert that “the poison of patriarchy” is back, after a study indicates that opponents of gender equality are actively undermining longstanding consensus on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.
African ‘Family Values’ Conferences
Over the summer, a series of conferences in Africa themed around the traditional family and national sovereignty raises concerns among equality campaigners. In May, a president and first lady open a significant conference to combat what they label external influences undermining local norms. A shortly thereafter, another continental gathering on traditional morals is held. Both events are graced by leading Western campaigners against gender ideology, including heads of influential networks. One speaker calls on African NGOs to push back against “radical global social engineering” of international organizations. In the following month, a global faith group hosts a family strengthening conference in the region, an event that reproductive rights advocates say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Campaigners note that the scale of their presence has increased markedly.
American Plan to Burn Birth Control
As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa report they are facing shortages of birth control, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in midsummer plans to dispose of a vast stockpile of birth control held in a storage facility in Belgium. A global sexual health network states that their elimination will deprive millions of women and girls from family planning options, and lead to hundreds of thousands of unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions. The organization labels the plan an dogmatic choice “about imposing an anti-rights agenda on the entire world” and “a deliberate form of reproductive oppression”. A international emergency medical charity calls it “callous and reckless”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains unresolved as the regional government will not allow the destruction of viable medicines.
Broader Restrictions on Aid
Reviving the global gag rule, which cuts American funding for groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is commonplace under certain US administrations. It was anticipated when the rule was reinstated in January. 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 national governments and international bodies in addition to NGOs, and to cover diversity programmes. Further specifics about the expansion of the rule are likely forthcoming. A director of a major health partnership says widening the scope will have “catastrophic impacts”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that fresh American assistance deals being arranged with states on the continent will become contingent upon adopting the expanded global gag.
