A Quintet of Crucial Incidents in the Erosion of the Rights of Women and Girls in 2025.
A year ago, feminist advocacy groups were bracing themselves for a Trump presidency sequel. Hardly anyone anticipated. The sheer number and rapid pace of White House mandates issued from the White House were interpreted as a calculated strategy to cause confusion and fear. The tactic proved effective – there was confusion, anger and exhaustion as agencies hastened to compensate for the loss left by a abrupt cessation of financial support. But that was just the beginning.
The Trump administration has been the central catalyst, aided by intense advocacy work by religious fundamentalist networks exploiting the situation to solidify transnational relationships with political allies.
The movement against gender equality signifies a transnational grouping of elected officials, faith-based bodies, non-governmental organisations as well as ultra-rich backers and donors that strive to weaken progress across a wide spectrum of issues. Areas targeted involve reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.
They pursue this agenda via lobbying governments, supporting court cases, discrediting international efforts to advance equality, spreading disinformation, and funding non-profit organisations.
We analyze five episodes that shaped the protection, honor, and existence of women and girls.
USAID Dismantled
In March, shortly after a key American development organization is suspended, causing turmoil around the world, a leading figure in the administration announces that the lion's share of the body's projects will be terminated. American foreign service officers, ex-presidents and relief and public health authorities condemn the news, warning that lives will be lost. Rights defenders say that the dismantling of this institution is greater than a budgetary issue, it is a savage attack on human rights and birth control and maternal healthcare. Numerous groups say the impact on girls and women will be severe by waning support, especially in conflict areas. As the year ends, evidence indicates how hundreds of thousands of people have already died from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with millions more to come. Additional key contributing countries initiate similar reductions. A head of a worldwide campaign network says a move to cut foreign aid drastically is an attempt to placate a powerful partner.
Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference
In March, several Christian-right organisations meet in an high-end hotel in NYC for a strategic summit held alongside the annual UN Women gathering. It is an chance to exchange strategies on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in optimistic frame of mind as they applaud new Washington directives on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the global conference with a grave caution that “the poison of patriarchy” is returning, after a study indicates that groups opposing progressive rights are deliberately weakening historic agreements on key women’s rights issues around the world.
African ‘Family Values’ Conferences
Over the warmer months, a sequence of gatherings in Africa focused on the conventional household and state autonomy raises concerns among human rights defenders. In the start of May, a national leader and spouse open a large assembly to combat what they label external influences undermining local norms. A shortly thereafter, another regional summit on family values is held. Both events are participated in by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including leaders of well-known groups. One speaker urges African NGOs to stand up to “radical global social engineering” of multilateral bodies. In June, a global faith group hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in West Africa, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Campaigners note that the scale of their presence has expanded considerably.
American Plan to Burn Birth Control
As medical centers in numerous African countries report they are depleting their stocks of family planning supplies, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in midsummer plans to incinerate a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a warehouse in Europe. A major reproductive health federation states that their destruction will deny millions of women and girls from contraceptive supplies, and lead to a public health crisis of unwanted pregnancies. The organization labels the plan an politically-motivated move “about forcing a conservative worldview globally” and “a calculated move to control fertility”. A international emergency medical charity calls it “callous and reckless”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains unresolved as local authorities will not allow the destruction of viable medicines.
‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded
Reinstating the Mexico City Policy, which cuts American funding for groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is typical of certain US administrations. It was widely expected when the policy was restored 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 sovereign states and UN agencies in addition to NGOs, and to cover diversity programmes. Further specifics about the expansion of the rule are expected in early 2026. A expert in child welfare says extending the reach will have “devastating consequences”. Pro-choice activists fear that fresh American assistance deals being arranged with states on the continent will become dependent on agreeing to the new, wider policy.
