A Quintet of Significant Developments in the Assault on the Freedoms of Women and Girls in the Past Year.
This time last year, organisations advocating for women's rights were bracing themselves for a second Trump term. The ensuing chaos was largely unforeseen. The flood and velocity of White House mandates emanating from the White House were interpreted as a deliberate tactic to paralyze through overload. To a large extent, it succeeded – there was bewilderment, fury, and fatigue as networks struggled to address the shortfall left by a major funding freeze. But this merely marked the opening act.
The Trump administration has been the central catalyst, complemented by relentless activism by deeply conservative factions seizing the opportunity to solidify transnational relationships with ideological partners.
This opposition to progressive rights describes a worldwide alliance of political leaders, religious institutions, civil society groups as well as affluent financiers and clans that strive to weaken forward movement on multiple topics. Areas targeted involve 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 promote fairness, circulating falsehoods, and resourcing aligned NGOs.
We review five moments that influenced the safety, dignity and lives of females globally.
USAID Effectively 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 agency’s programmes will be eliminated. Career diplomats, former presidents and aid and medical specialists denounce the action, warning that people will die as a result. Human rights advocates say that the dismantling of this institution is more than a funding crisis, it is a savage attack on human rights and birth control and maternal healthcare. Numerous groups say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by reduced funding, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, evidence indicates how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with many more millions at risk. Additional key contributing countries proceed with parallel slashes. A director of a global justice organization says a move to cut foreign aid drastically is an attempt to placate a powerful partner.
Christian-Right Groups Raise Voices During UN Women Summit
In March, several Christian-right organisations meet in an high-end hotel in NYC for a strategic summit held in parallel with the international conference on women's rights. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in buoyant mood as they celebrate new Washington directives on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the women’s summit with a grave caution that “the venom of male dominance” is back, after a analysis demonstrates that anti-rights actors are actively undermining longstanding consensus on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.
African ‘Family Values’ Conferences
Over the summer, a sequence of gatherings in Africa focused on the conservative family structures and national independence sparks alarm among equality campaigners. In early May, a president and first lady open a significant conference to push back on what they label external influences undermining local norms. A soon after, another continental gathering on family values is held. Both events are attended by leading American and European conservative activists, including leaders of well-known groups. One speaker calls on African NGOs to stand up to “radical global social engineering” of multilateral bodies. In the following month, a global faith group hosts a event focused on reinforcing families in an African nation, an event that reproductive rights advocates say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. 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 facing shortages of birth control, including emergency kits for survivors of sexual violence, the US announces in midsummer plans to dispose of a vast stockpile of birth control held in a storage facility in Belgium. A global sexual health network states that their elimination will deprive millions of women and girls from family planning options, and lead to hundreds of thousands of unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions. The organization labels the plan an politically-motivated move “about forcing a conservative worldview globally” and “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A international emergency medical charity calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains at a standstill as host nation officials are blocking usable products to be destroyed.
‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded
Reviving the global gag rule, which cuts American funding for groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is commonplace under certain US administrations. It was widely expected when the ban was reimposed in the first month of the year. The administration also reaffirmed membership in a pro-life declaration. But in October, 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. More details on the policy's widened application are expected in early 2026. A director of a major health partnership says extending the reach will have “devastating consequences”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that new US aid packages being negotiated with countries in Africa will become contingent upon adopting the expanded global gag.
