Five Critical Crucial Incidents in the Assault on the Rights of Women and Girls in 2025.
In the previous year, women’s rights organisations were anticipating a second Trump term. Few were prepared for. The volume and speed of executive orders emanating from the White House were seen as a deliberate tactic to cause confusion and fear. This strategy had its intended impact – there was confusion, anger and exhaustion as networks struggled to compensate for the loss left by a major funding freeze. But that was just the beginning.
The Washington leadership has been the primary force, bolstered by intense advocacy work by far-right organisations exploiting the situation to build worldwide connections with political allies.
This opposition to progressive rights describes a worldwide alliance of elected officials, faith-based bodies, non-governmental organisations as well as ultra-rich backers and donors that seek to undermine advances on numerous fronts. Areas targeted involve access to termination, gay and trans protections, alternative households, and factual sexual instruction.
They achieve this through advocating to officials, financing legal challenges, sabotaging multilateral work to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.
We review five episodes that impacted the safety, dignity and lives of the female population.
The Demise of a Major Aid Agency
In the month of March, a month and a half following a key American development organization is suspended, causing global disruption, a senior US official announces that a vast majority of the agency’s programmes will be eliminated. American foreign service officers, former presidents and humanitarian and health experts condemn the news, stating that mortality will increase. Activists say that the closure of the organization is greater than a budgetary issue, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and family planning and reproductive care. A multitude of agencies say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by shrinking assistance, especially in war zones. As the year ends, statistics reveal how hundreds of thousands of people have already died from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with many more millions at risk. Two other major donor nations 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.
Conservative Religious Groups Lobby at UN Women Meeting
In March, several Christian-right organisations meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a strategic summit held in parallel with the UN's flagship gender equality meeting. It is an chance to exchange strategies 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 head of the United Nations opens the women’s summit with a somber alert that “the venom of male dominance” is back, after a analysis demonstrates that opponents of gender equality are deliberately weakening historic agreements on key women’s rights issues around the world.
Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa
Over the warmer months, a series of conferences in Africa focused on the traditional family and national sovereignty triggers anxiety among equality campaigners. In early May, a head of state and partner open a large assembly to resist what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A shortly thereafter, 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 urges African NGOs to stand up to “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of international organizations. In the following month, a global faith group hosts a event focused on reinforcing families in the region, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Activists observe that the extent of foreign involvement has grown significantly.
Contraceptive Destruction Order
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 July plans to destroy millions of dollars worth of contraceptives held in a warehouse in Europe. A global sexual health network states that their destruction will deny a huge female population from contraceptive supplies, and lead to a surge in unplanned pregnancies and dangerous terminations. The organization labels the plan an politically-motivated move “about exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “a calculated move to control fertility”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can be distributed to those in need, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains at a standstill as local authorities are blocking usable products to be destroyed.
‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded
Reviving the global gag rule, which cuts American funding for groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is commonplace under certain US administrations. It came as no surprise when the ban was reimposed in January. The administration also signed onto a conservative consensus document. But in the autumn, the US announces it intends to extend the restrictions to include sovereign states and UN agencies in addition to NGOs, and to encompass equity and inclusion initiatives. More details on the broader enforcement are expected in early 2026. A expert in child welfare says broadening the policy will have “devastating consequences”. Pro-choice activists fear that new US aid packages being discussed with African nations will become dependent on agreeing to the new, wider policy.
