A Quintet of Key Moments in the Rollback of the Rights of Women and Girls in the Year 2025.

In the previous year, women’s rights organisations were preparing for a second Trump term. Few were prepared for. The sheer number and rapid pace of White House mandates originating in the White House were seen as a premeditated approach to overwhelm and create panic. To a large extent, it succeeded – there was disarray, outrage, and weariness as agencies hastened to fill the gap left by a major funding freeze. But that was just the beginning.

The American government has been the central catalyst, complemented by vigorous campaigning by far-right organisations seizing the opportunity to build worldwide connections with like-minded governments.

The anti-rights movement refers to a global network of elected officials, faith-based bodies, non-governmental organisations as well as ultra-rich backers and donors that work to dismantle advances on numerous fronts. These include access to termination, gay and trans protections, alternative households, and factual sexual instruction.

They pursue this agenda via influencing policymakers, funding litigation, undermining global initiatives to advance equality, spreading disinformation, and funding non-profit organisations.

We examine five episodes that shaped the security, respect, and well-being of females globally.

USAID Dismantled

In early spring, a month and a half following a prominent humanitarian funder is halted, causing turmoil around the world, a leading figure in the administration states that nearly all of the body's projects will be terminated. Career diplomats, former presidents and aid and medical specialists condemn the news, cautioning that lives will be lost. Rights defenders say that the demise of the agency is not just a financial shortfall, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and birth control and maternal healthcare. Many organisations say the impact on girls and women will be severe by shrinking assistance, especially in war zones. As the year ends, evidence indicates how a tremendous loss of life has already occurred from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with a far greater catastrophe looming. Another pair of leading funders follow with their own cuts. A leader of an international advocacy group says a decision to slash billions in overseas assistance is a move to appease a political ally.

Christian-Right Groups Raise Voices During UN Women Summit

In March, several conservative religious groups meet in an high-end hotel in NYC for a strategic summit held in parallel with the UN's flagship gender equality meeting. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in buoyant mood as they welcome new Washington directives on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the women’s summit with a somber alert that “the venom of male dominance” is returning, after a report shows that opponents of gender equality are systematically eroding historic agreements on core aspects of gender equality around the world.

Summits Promoting Conservative Norms

Over the warmer months, a cluster of meetings in Africa centered on the conventional household and state autonomy raises concerns among rights advocates. In the start of May, a national leader and spouse open a major forum to push back on what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A shortly thereafter, another continental gathering on conservative ethics is held. Both events are graced by leading American and European conservative activists, including leaders of well-known groups. One speaker calls on African NGOs to resist “international liberal agenda” of multilateral bodies. In the following month, a major religious institution hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in the region, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Campaigners note that the scale of their presence has expanded considerably.

Contraceptive Destruction Order

As medical centers in numerous African countries report they are depleting their stocks of family planning supplies, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in midsummer plans to incinerate a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a European depot. A major reproductive health federation states that their elimination will deprive a huge female population from family planning options, and lead to a public health crisis of unwanted pregnancies. The organization labels the plan an ideological decision “about imposing an anti-rights agenda on the entire world” and “a calculated move to control fertility”. A international emergency medical charity calls it “heartless and dangerous”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains in deadlock as host nation officials are blocking the destruction of viable medicines.

Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy

Reinstating the Mexico City Policy, which cuts American funding for groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is typical of certain US administrations. It was anticipated when the ban was reimposed in the first month of the year. The administration also rejoined an international anti-abortion agreement. But in the autumn, the US announces it intends to expand the global gag rule to include governments and multilateral organisations in addition to NGOs, and to encompass equity and inclusion initiatives. Additional information regarding the expansion of the rule are anticipated next year. A director of a major health partnership says widening the scope will have “devastating consequences”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that fresh American assistance deals being arranged with states on the continent will become contingent upon adopting the new, wider policy.