Five Critical Pivotal Events in the Attack on the Freedoms of Women and Girls in the Year 2025.
In the previous year, feminist advocacy groups were anticipating a second Trump term. The ensuing chaos was largely unforeseen. The torrent and swiftness of White House mandates coming out of the White House were regarded as a calculated strategy to overwhelm and create panic. The tactic proved effective – there was chaos, resentment, and burnout as groups rushed to plug the hole left by a abrupt cessation of financial support. But this merely marked the opening act.
The Trump administration has been the main instigator, complemented by intense advocacy work by far-right organisations seizing the opportunity to forge international alliances with like-minded governments.
The anti-rights movement signifies a transnational grouping of government figures, churches, and advocacy collectives as well as ultra-rich backers and donors that strive to weaken progress across a wide spectrum of issues. These include reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.
They do this by lobbying governments, supporting court cases, discrediting international efforts to advance equality, spreading disinformation, and funding non-profit organisations.
We review five moments that impacted the welfare, autonomy, and survival of girls and women.
USAID Effectively Dismantled
In early spring, shortly after a prominent humanitarian funder is its funds are blocked, causing global disruption, a senior US official reveals that nearly all of the organization's initiatives will be axed. US diplomats, past leaders and aid and medical specialists condemn the news, predicting that mortality will increase. Human rights advocates say that the closure of the organization is more than a funding crisis, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms 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, statistics reveal how a tremendous loss of life has already occurred from sickness, hunger, poor pregnancy healthcare, and abuse targeting females, with many more millions at risk. Two other major donor nations follow with their own cuts. A director of a global justice organization says a decision to slash billions in overseas assistance is an attempt to placate a powerful partner.
Christian-Right Groups Raise Voices During UN Women Summit
In the same month, several faith-based advocacy networks meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a two-day conference held concurrently with the UN's flagship gender equality meeting. It is an chance to exchange strategies on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in optimistic frame of mind as they applaud shifts in US policy on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the gender equality forum with a stark warning that “the venom of male dominance” is resurgent, after a report shows that anti-rights actors are deliberately weakening established norms on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.
Summits Promoting Conservative Norms
Over the warmer months, a sequence of gatherings in Africa centered on the conservative family structures and national independence sparks alarm among equality campaigners. In the start of May, a national leader and spouse open a significant conference to combat what they label external influences undermining local norms. A few days later, another continental gathering on family values is held. Both events are attended by leading American and European conservative activists, including heads of influential networks. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to stand up to “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of multilateral bodies. In the following month, a global faith group hosts a family strengthening conference in the region, an event that health activists say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Advocates remark 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 emergency kits for survivors of sexual violence, the US announces in midsummer plans to dispose of a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a European depot. A leading family planning organization states that their incineration will prevent a huge female population from contraceptive supplies, and lead to a surge in unplanned pregnancies and dangerous terminations. The organization labels the plan an politically-motivated move “about exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “a deliberate form of reproductive oppression”. A international emergency medical charity calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can be distributed to those in need, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains at a standstill as host nation officials will not allow perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.
‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded
Reinstating the Mexico City Policy, 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 policy was restored in January. The administration also signed onto a conservative consensus document. But in October, the US announces it intends to broaden the scope of the policy to include governments and multilateral organisations in addition to NGOs, and to encompass equity and inclusion initiatives. More details on the expansion of the rule are anticipated next year. A expert in child welfare says widening the scope will have “unimaginable effects”. Pro-choice activists fear that fresh American assistance deals being negotiated with countries in Africa will become dependent on agreeing to the expanded global gag.