🔗 Share this article Five Critical Landmark Occurrences in the Attack on the Rights of Women and Girls in the Year 2025. Twelve months prior, women’s rights organisations were steeling themselves against a new Trump administration. The ensuing chaos was largely unforeseen. The flood and velocity of administrative decrees coming out of the White House were viewed as a intentional maneuver to induce a state of shock. To a large extent, it succeeded – there was disarray, outrage, and weariness as organisations scrambled to fill the gap left by a sudden aid suspension. But this was only the precursor. The Washington leadership has been the main instigator, supported by intense advocacy work by religious fundamentalist networks using the moment to build worldwide connections with political allies. This opposition to progressive rights signifies a transnational grouping of elected officials, faith-based bodies, non-governmental organisations as well as wealthy philanthropists and dynasties that seek to undermine gains in a variety of areas. These include abortion, LGBTQ rights, trans rights, non-traditional family structures and comprehensive sexuality education. They do this by advocating to officials, financing legal challenges, sabotaging multilateral work to promote fairness, circulating falsehoods, and resourcing aligned NGOs. We look at five moments that influenced the security, respect, and well-being of the female population. The Demise of a Major Aid Agency In early spring, six weeks after a prominent humanitarian funder is frozen, causing turmoil around the world, a leading figure in the administration states that a vast majority of the body's projects will be terminated. US diplomats, ex-presidents and aid and medical specialists decry the decision, predicting that mortality will increase. Rights defenders say that the closure of the organization is more than a funding crisis, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and access to contraception and reproductive health services. Numerous groups say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by waning support, especially in regions of instability. 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. Two other major donor nations initiate similar reductions. A head of a worldwide campaign network says a move to cut foreign aid drastically is a move to appease a political ally. 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 two-day conference 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 welcome changes in American foreign policy on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the women’s summit with a stark warning that “the venom of male dominance” is resurgent, after a report shows that groups opposing progressive rights are systematically eroding historic agreements on key women’s rights issues 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 equality campaigners. In the start of May, a head of state and partner open a major forum to combat what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A soon after, another Pan-African conference on family values is held. Both events are graced by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including heads of influential networks. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to stand up to “international liberal agenda” of multilateral bodies. In the following month, a prominent church hosts a event focused on reinforcing families in an African nation, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Advocates remark that the scale of their presence has grown significantly. Contraceptive Destruction Order As health facilities across Africa report they are facing shortages of birth control, including emergency kits for survivors of sexual violence, the US announces in midsummer plans to incinerate millions of dollars worth of contraceptives held in a storage facility in Belgium. A major reproductive health federation states that their destruction will deny countless females from access to birth control, 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”. Aid groups propose purchasing 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 are blocking perfectly good supplies to be incinerated. Broader Restrictions on Aid Reviving the global gag rule, which halts US aid to groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is standard practice for certain US administrations. It was anticipated when the ban was reimposed in the first month of the year. The administration also signed onto a conservative consensus document. But in October, the US announces it intends to broaden the scope of the policy to include governments and multilateral organisations in addition to NGOs, and to cover diversity programmes. More details on the policy's widened application are expected in early 2026. A expert in child welfare says extending the reach will have “catastrophic impacts”. Pro-choice activists fear that upcoming Washington funding agreements being arranged with states on the continent will become conditional on accepting the expanded global gag.
Twelve months prior, women’s rights organisations were steeling themselves against a new Trump administration. The ensuing chaos was largely unforeseen. The flood and velocity of administrative decrees coming out of the White House were viewed as a intentional maneuver to induce a state of shock. To a large extent, it succeeded – there was disarray, outrage, and weariness as organisations scrambled to fill the gap left by a sudden aid suspension. But this was only the precursor. The Washington leadership has been the main instigator, supported by intense advocacy work by religious fundamentalist networks using the moment to build worldwide connections with political allies. This opposition to progressive rights signifies a transnational grouping of elected officials, faith-based bodies, non-governmental organisations as well as wealthy philanthropists and dynasties that seek to undermine gains in a variety of areas. These include abortion, LGBTQ rights, trans rights, non-traditional family structures and comprehensive sexuality education. They do this by advocating to officials, financing legal challenges, sabotaging multilateral work to promote fairness, circulating falsehoods, and resourcing aligned NGOs. We look at five moments that influenced the security, respect, and well-being of the female population. The Demise of a Major Aid Agency In early spring, six weeks after a prominent humanitarian funder is frozen, causing turmoil around the world, a leading figure in the administration states that a vast majority of the body's projects will be terminated. US diplomats, ex-presidents and aid and medical specialists decry the decision, predicting that mortality will increase. Rights defenders say that the closure of the organization is more than a funding crisis, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and access to contraception and reproductive health services. Numerous groups say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by waning support, especially in regions of instability. 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. Two other major donor nations initiate similar reductions. A head of a worldwide campaign network says a move to cut foreign aid drastically is a move to appease a political ally. 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 two-day conference 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 welcome changes in American foreign policy on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the women’s summit with a stark warning that “the venom of male dominance” is resurgent, after a report shows that groups opposing progressive rights are systematically eroding historic agreements on key women’s rights issues 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 equality campaigners. In the start of May, a head of state and partner open a major forum to combat what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A soon after, another Pan-African conference on family values is held. Both events are graced by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including heads of influential networks. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to stand up to “international liberal agenda” of multilateral bodies. In the following month, a prominent church hosts a event focused on reinforcing families in an African nation, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Advocates remark that the scale of their presence has grown significantly. Contraceptive Destruction Order As health facilities across Africa report they are facing shortages of birth control, including emergency kits for survivors of sexual violence, the US announces in midsummer plans to incinerate millions of dollars worth of contraceptives held in a storage facility in Belgium. A major reproductive health federation states that their destruction will deny countless females from access to birth control, 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”. Aid groups propose purchasing 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 are blocking perfectly good supplies to be incinerated. Broader Restrictions on Aid Reviving the global gag rule, which halts US aid to groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is standard practice for certain US administrations. It was anticipated when the ban was reimposed in the first month of the year. The administration also signed onto a conservative consensus document. But in October, the US announces it intends to broaden the scope of the policy to include governments and multilateral organisations in addition to NGOs, and to cover diversity programmes. More details on the policy's widened application are expected in early 2026. A expert in child welfare says extending the reach will have “catastrophic impacts”. Pro-choice activists fear that upcoming Washington funding agreements being arranged with states on the continent will become conditional on accepting the expanded global gag.