Five Major Pivotal Events in the Erosion of the Rights of Women and Girls in 2025.
A year ago, organisations advocating for women's rights were steeling themselves against a second Trump term. Few were prepared for. The torrent and swiftness of presidential directives issued from the White House were interpreted as a premeditated approach to paralyze through overload. The tactic proved effective – there was confusion, anger and exhaustion as agencies hastened to fill the gap left by a freeze on international development funds. But that was just the beginning.
The American government has been the primary force, bolstered by fervent lobbying efforts by deeply conservative factions exploiting the situation to forge international alliances with ideological partners.
The anti-rights movement refers to a global network of policymakers, doctrinal establishments, and activist outfits as well as ultra-rich backers and donors that work to dismantle forward movement on multiple topics. These include access to termination, gay and trans protections, alternative households, and factual sexual instruction.
They do this by advocating to officials, financing legal challenges, sabotaging multilateral work to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.
We look at five episodes that shaped the protection, honor, and existence of females globally.
The Demise of a Major Aid Agency
In early spring, a month and a half following a key American development organization is halted, causing global disruption, a top American diplomat states that the lion's share of the institution's work will be scrapped. Career diplomats, former presidents and humanitarian and health experts decry the decision, cautioning that mortality will increase. Human rights advocates say that the closure of the organization is not just a financial shortfall, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and access to contraception and reproductive health services. Many organisations say females will bear the brunt by waning support, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, statistics reveal how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from disease, starvation, lack of access to maternal care and gender-based violence, with many more millions at risk. Two other major donor nations announce their own austerity measures. A head of a worldwide campaign network says a choice to reduce international development funding is an attempt to placate a powerful partner.
Conservative Religious Groups Lobby at UN Women Meeting
In March, several faith-based advocacy networks meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a strategic summit 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 buoyant mood as they celebrate shifts in US policy on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the gender equality forum with a somber alert that “the poison of patriarchy” is returning, after a report shows that anti-rights actors are deliberately weakening historic agreements on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.
African ‘Family Values’ Conferences
Over the summer, a cluster of meetings in Africa themed around the traditional family and national sovereignty raises concerns among human rights defenders. In May, a president and first lady open a major forum to push back on what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A soon after, another regional summit on family values is held. Both events are attended by leading US and European anti-rights figures, 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 major religious institution hosts a family strengthening conference in West Africa, an event that reproductive rights advocates say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Campaigners note that the level of external participation has increased markedly.
Contraceptive Destruction Order
As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa report they are depleting their stocks of family planning supplies, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in July plans to destroy millions of dollars worth of contraceptives held in a European depot. A major reproductive health federation states that their incineration will prevent millions of women and girls from access to birth control, and lead to a public health crisis of unwanted pregnancies. The organization labels the plan an dogmatic choice “about forcing a conservative worldview globally” and “a calculated move to control fertility”. A international emergency medical charity calls it “callous and reckless”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can be distributed to those in need, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains in deadlock as host nation officials refuse to permit perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.
Broader Restrictions on Aid
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 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 expand the global gag rule to include national governments and international bodies in addition to NGOs, and to include DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) projects. Additional information regarding the expansion of the rule are expected in early 2026. A director of a major health partnership says broadening the policy will have “unimaginable effects”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that upcoming Washington funding agreements being arranged with states on the continent will become dependent on agreeing to the broadened restrictions.
