Five Critical Significant Developments in the Erosion of the Rights of Women and Girls in the Year 2025.
A year ago, groups dedicated to gender equality were bracing themselves for a second Trump term. Scarcely anyone expected. The torrent and swiftness of presidential directives issued from the White House were interpreted as a calculated strategy to induce a state of shock. This strategy had its intended impact – there was chaos, resentment, and burnout as networks struggled to fill the gap left by a major funding freeze. But this was only the precursor.
The American government has been the key driver, bolstered by relentless activism by far-right organisations using the moment to forge international alliances with sympathetic regimes.
This opposition to progressive rights refers to a global network of political leaders, religious institutions, civil society groups as well as affluent financiers and clans that seek to undermine gains in a variety of areas. This encompasses reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.
They achieve this through pressuring states, backing lawsuits, disparaging UN work to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.
We analyze five instances that impacted the safety, dignity and lives of girls and women.
The Demise of a Major Aid Agency
In early spring, shortly after a major US aid agency is frozen, causing widespread distress, a leading figure in the administration reveals that the lion's share of the organization's initiatives will be axed. US diplomats, former presidents and relief and public health authorities denounce the action, cautioning that lives will be lost. Human rights advocates say that the dismantling of this institution is not just a financial shortfall, it is a savage attack on human rights and access to contraception and reproductive health services. Numerous groups say females will bear the brunt by shrinking assistance, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, statistics reveal how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with a far greater catastrophe looming. Additional key contributing countries initiate similar reductions. A director of a global justice organization says a move to cut foreign aid drastically is a gesture of alignment with another government's agenda.
Christian-Right Groups Raise Voices During UN Women Summit
In the same month, several conservative religious groups meet in an high-end hotel in NYC for a two-day conference held alongside the international conference on women's rights. It is an chance to exchange strategies on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in high spirits as they welcome shifts in US policy on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the women’s summit with a grave caution that “the poison of patriarchy” is returning, after a study indicates that opponents of gender equality are systematically eroding longstanding consensus on core aspects of gender equality around the world.
Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa
Over the warmer months, a cluster of meetings in Africa centered on the conventional household and state autonomy sparks alarm among rights advocates. In the start of May, a head of state and partner open a major forum to resist what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A shortly thereafter, another continental gathering on traditional morals is held. Both events are attended by leading Western campaigners against gender ideology, including heads of influential networks. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to push back against “radical global social engineering” of multilateral bodies. In June, a global faith group hosts a family strengthening conference in West Africa, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Advocates remark that the extent of foreign involvement has grown significantly.
Contraceptive Destruction Order
As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa report they are running out of contraceptives, including emergency kits for survivors of sexual violence, the US announces in July plans to dispose of a vast stockpile of birth control held in a warehouse in Europe. A leading family planning organization states that their destruction will deny a huge female population from access to birth control, and lead to a surge in unplanned pregnancies and dangerous terminations. The organization labels the plan an dogmatic choice “about exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “a deliberate form of reproductive oppression”. A international emergency medical charity calls it “heartless and dangerous”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can be distributed to those in need, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains in deadlock as the regional government will not allow perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.
Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy
Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, which prohibits Washington's support for groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is standard practice for certain US administrations. It came as no surprise when the ban was reimposed in the first month of the year. The administration also signed onto a conservative consensus document. But in the autumn, the US announces it intends to extend the restrictions to include national governments and international bodies in addition to NGOs, and to encompass equity and inclusion initiatives. Additional information regarding the policy's widened application are expected in early 2026. A leader in global maternal health says broadening the policy 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 broadened restrictions.
