Five Defining Key Moments in the Attack on the Freedoms of Women and Girls in the Past Year.
A year ago, organisations advocating for women's rights were steeling themselves against a return of Donald Trump to office. Scarcely anyone expected. The volume and speed of White House mandates issued from the White House were seen as a deliberate tactic to paralyze through overload. The tactic proved effective – there was confusion, anger and exhaustion as agencies hastened to address the shortfall left by a freeze on international development funds. But the situation was about to worsen.
The Trump administration has been the key driver, complemented by vigorous campaigning by religious fundamentalist networks exploiting the situation to forge international alliances with ideological partners.
Often termed the anti-gender movement signifies a transnational grouping of policymakers, doctrinal establishments, and activist outfits as well as wealthy philanthropists and dynasties that strive to weaken gains in a variety of areas. This covers pro-choice policies, equality for sexual minorities, gender identity recognition, and inclusive relationship teaching.
They do this by influencing policymakers, funding litigation, undermining global initiatives to promote fairness, circulating falsehoods, and resourcing aligned NGOs.
We look at five moments that impacted the protection, honor, and existence of women and girls.
USAID Dismantled
In the month of March, shortly after a prominent humanitarian funder is frozen, causing turmoil around the world, a leading figure in the administration confirms that nearly all of the agency’s programmes will be eliminated. Career diplomats, ex-presidents and aid and medical specialists condemn the news, stating that mortality will increase. Rights defenders say that the dismantling of this institution is greater than a budgetary issue, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and birth control and maternal healthcare. Many organisations say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by shrinking assistance, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, reports confirm how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with millions more to come. Another pair of leading funders announce their own austerity measures. A leader of an international advocacy group 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 conservative religious groups meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a biannual gathering held alongside the annual UN Women gathering. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in optimistic frame of mind as they welcome shifts in US policy on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the women’s summit with a stark warning that “the venom of male dominance” is back, after a report shows 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 summer, a cluster of meetings in Africa centered on the traditional family and national sovereignty sparks alarm among rights advocates. In the start of May, a national leader and spouse open a major forum to resist what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A soon after, another regional summit on family values is held. Both events are graced by leading Western campaigners against gender ideology, including heads of influential networks. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to stand up to “international liberal agenda” of international organizations. In June, a major religious institution hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in an African nation, 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 grown significantly.
American Plan to Burn Birth Control
As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa report they are running out of contraceptives, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in July plans to destroy a vast stockpile of birth control held in a storage facility in Belgium. A major reproductive health federation states that their destruction will deny millions of women and girls from access to birth control, and lead to hundreds of thousands of unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions. The organization labels the plan an dogmatic choice “about forcing a conservative worldview globally” and “a deliberate form of reproductive oppression”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “callous and reckless”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains at a standstill as the regional government refuse to permit usable products to be destroyed.
Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy
Reinstating the Mexico City Policy, which prohibits Washington's support for groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is standard practice for certain US administrations. It came as no surprise when the policy was restored in the first month of the year. 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 sovereign states and UN agencies in addition to NGOs, and to encompass equity and inclusion initiatives. Further specifics about the policy's widened application are expected in early 2026. A leader in global maternal health says widening the scope will have “unimaginable effects”. Pro-choice activists fear that upcoming Washington funding agreements being arranged with states on the continent will become contingent upon adopting the broadened restrictions.
