🔗 Share this article A Quintet of Significant Developments in the Attack on the Rights of Women and Girls in the Year 2025. Twelve months prior, women’s rights organisations were anticipating a second Trump term. Hardly anyone anticipated. The torrent and swiftness of administrative decrees issued from the White House were viewed as a deliberate tactic to paralyze through overload. In many ways it worked – there was chaos, resentment, and burnout as organisations scrambled to fill the gap left by a freeze on international development funds. But the situation was about to worsen. The US administration has been the main instigator, complemented by relentless activism by religious fundamentalist networks seizing the opportunity to strengthen global ties with sympathetic regimes. The anti-rights movement denotes an international coalition of policymakers, doctrinal establishments, and activist outfits as well as billionaire families and individuals that seek to undermine forward movement on multiple topics. This encompasses pro-choice policies, equality for sexual minorities, gender identity recognition, and inclusive relationship teaching. They achieve this through lobbying governments, supporting court cases, discrediting international efforts to advance equality, spreading disinformation, and funding non-profit organisations. We examine five moments that shaped the security, respect, and well-being of females globally. USAID Dismantled In March, six weeks after a major US aid agency is its funds are blocked, causing widespread distress, a leading figure in the administration states that the lion's share of the institution's work will be scrapped. American foreign service officers, former presidents and aid and medical specialists decry the decision, warning that lives will be lost. Activists say that the dismantling of this institution is not just a financial shortfall, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms 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, evidence indicates how a tremendous loss of life has already occurred from sickness, hunger, poor pregnancy healthcare, and abuse targeting females, with a far greater catastrophe looming. Additional key contributing countries announce their own austerity measures. A director of a global justice organization says a choice to reduce international development funding is a move to appease a political ally. Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference In March, several Christian-right organisations meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a strategic summit held in parallel with the annual UN Women gathering. It is an forum to discuss methods on how to counter the UN's progressive policies. They are in high spirits as they celebrate changes in American foreign policy on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the women’s summit with a grave caution that “the venom of male dominance” is returning, after a report shows that groups opposing progressive rights are systematically eroding established norms on core aspects of gender equality around the world. Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa Over the summer, a sequence of gatherings in Africa themed around the conservative family structures and national independence triggers anxiety among rights advocates. In May, a national leader and spouse open a significant conference to push back on what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A soon after, another regional summit on conservative ethics is held. Both events are participated in by leading American and European conservative activists, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to resist “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of global institutions. In June, a global faith group hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in West Africa, an event that health activists say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Campaigners note that the level of external participation has expanded considerably. Contraceptive Destruction Order As health facilities across Africa report they are running out of contraceptives, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in midsummer plans to incinerate a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a European depot. A major reproductive health federation states that their destruction will deny millions of women and girls from access to birth control, and lead to a public health crisis of unwanted pregnancies. The organization labels the plan an politically-motivated move “about imposing an anti-rights agenda on the entire world” and “a calculated move to control fertility”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “heartless and dangerous”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can be distributed to those in need, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains unresolved as host nation officials refuse to permit usable products to be destroyed. Broader Restrictions on Aid Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, which cuts American funding 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 the autumn, the US announces it intends to expand the global gag rule to include national governments and international bodies in addition to NGOs, and to encompass equity and inclusion initiatives. Further specifics about the broader enforcement are expected in early 2026. A expert in child welfare says extending the reach will have “catastrophic impacts”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that new US aid packages being arranged with states on the continent will become conditional on accepting the broadened restrictions.
Twelve months prior, women’s rights organisations were anticipating a second Trump term. Hardly anyone anticipated. The torrent and swiftness of administrative decrees issued from the White House were viewed as a deliberate tactic to paralyze through overload. In many ways it worked – there was chaos, resentment, and burnout as organisations scrambled to fill the gap left by a freeze on international development funds. But the situation was about to worsen. The US administration has been the main instigator, complemented by relentless activism by religious fundamentalist networks seizing the opportunity to strengthen global ties with sympathetic regimes. The anti-rights movement denotes an international coalition of policymakers, doctrinal establishments, and activist outfits as well as billionaire families and individuals that seek to undermine forward movement on multiple topics. This encompasses pro-choice policies, equality for sexual minorities, gender identity recognition, and inclusive relationship teaching. They achieve this through lobbying governments, supporting court cases, discrediting international efforts to advance equality, spreading disinformation, and funding non-profit organisations. We examine five moments that shaped the security, respect, and well-being of females globally. USAID Dismantled In March, six weeks after a major US aid agency is its funds are blocked, causing widespread distress, a leading figure in the administration states that the lion's share of the institution's work will be scrapped. American foreign service officers, former presidents and aid and medical specialists decry the decision, warning that lives will be lost. Activists say that the dismantling of this institution is not just a financial shortfall, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms 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, evidence indicates how a tremendous loss of life has already occurred from sickness, hunger, poor pregnancy healthcare, and abuse targeting females, with a far greater catastrophe looming. Additional key contributing countries announce their own austerity measures. A director of a global justice organization says a choice to reduce international development funding is a move to appease a political ally. Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference In March, several Christian-right organisations meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a strategic summit held in parallel with the annual UN Women gathering. It is an forum to discuss methods on how to counter the UN's progressive policies. They are in high spirits as they celebrate changes in American foreign policy on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the women’s summit with a grave caution that “the venom of male dominance” is returning, after a report shows that groups opposing progressive rights are systematically eroding established norms on core aspects of gender equality around the world. Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa Over the summer, a sequence of gatherings in Africa themed around the conservative family structures and national independence triggers anxiety among rights advocates. In May, a national leader and spouse open a significant conference to push back on what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A soon after, another regional summit on conservative ethics is held. Both events are participated in by leading American and European conservative activists, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to resist “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of global institutions. In June, a global faith group hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in West Africa, an event that health activists say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Campaigners note that the level of external participation has expanded considerably. Contraceptive Destruction Order As health facilities across Africa report they are running out of contraceptives, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in midsummer plans to incinerate a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a European depot. A major reproductive health federation states that their destruction will deny millions of women and girls from access to birth control, and lead to a public health crisis of unwanted pregnancies. The organization labels the plan an politically-motivated move “about imposing an anti-rights agenda on the entire world” and “a calculated move to control fertility”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “heartless and dangerous”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can be distributed to those in need, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains unresolved as host nation officials refuse to permit usable products to be destroyed. Broader Restrictions on Aid Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, which cuts American funding 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 the autumn, the US announces it intends to expand the global gag rule to include national governments and international bodies in addition to NGOs, and to encompass equity and inclusion initiatives. Further specifics about the broader enforcement are expected in early 2026. A expert in child welfare says extending the reach will have “catastrophic impacts”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that new US aid packages being arranged with states on the continent will become conditional on accepting the broadened restrictions.