Five Crucial Incidents in the Assault on the Freedoms of Women and Girls in the Year 2025.

Twelve months prior, feminist advocacy groups were steeling themselves against a return of Donald Trump to office. Scarcely anyone expected. The volume and speed of White House mandates issued from the White House were seen as a premeditated approach to paralyze through overload. To a large extent, it succeeded – there was chaos, resentment, and burnout as agencies hastened to plug the hole left by a sudden aid suspension. But this was only the precursor.

The American government has been the central catalyst, supported by intense advocacy work by religious fundamentalist networks using the moment to strengthen global ties with political allies.

This opposition to progressive rights refers to a global network of government figures, churches, and advocacy collectives as well as ultra-rich backers and donors that strive to weaken gains in a variety of areas. Areas targeted involve access to termination, gay and trans protections, alternative households, and factual sexual instruction.

They achieve this through pressuring states, backing lawsuits, disparaging UN work to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.

We look at five moments that impacted the protection, honor, and existence of women and girls.

USAID Effectively Dismantled

In early spring, six weeks after a prominent humanitarian funder is frozen, causing global disruption, a top American diplomat announces that nearly all of the organization's initiatives will be axed. Career diplomats, past leaders and humanitarian and health experts decry the decision, predicting that fatalities will ensue. Human rights advocates say that the demise of the agency is more than a funding crisis, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and family planning and reproductive care. Numerous groups say the impact on girls and women will be severe by reduced funding, especially in conflict areas. As the year ends, statistics reveal how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from sickness, hunger, poor pregnancy healthcare, and abuse targeting females, with millions more to come. Additional key contributing countries initiate similar reductions. A director of a global justice organization says a choice to reduce international development funding 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 two-day conference held alongside the international conference on women's rights. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to counter the UN's progressive policies. They are in high spirits as they celebrate shifts in US policy on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the gender equality forum with a somber alert that “the poison of patriarchy” is returning, after a analysis demonstrates that anti-rights actors are deliberately weakening established norms on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.

African ‘Family Values’ Conferences

Over the summer, a cluster of meetings in Africa focused on the traditional family and national sovereignty sparks alarm among rights advocates. In early May, a head of state and partner open a significant conference to combat what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A shortly thereafter, another continental gathering on traditional morals is held. Both events are participated in by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including heads of influential networks. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to resist “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of international organizations. In the following month, a prominent church hosts a family strengthening conference in West Africa, an event that reproductive rights advocates say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Campaigners note that the scale of their presence has grown significantly.

Contraceptive Destruction Order

As medical centers in numerous African countries report they are running out of contraceptives, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in July plans to dispose of a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a European depot. A major reproductive health federation states that their elimination will deprive countless females from contraceptive supplies, and lead to a surge in unplanned pregnancies and dangerous terminations. The organization labels the plan an dogmatic choice “about exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “a calculated move to control fertility”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “callous and reckless”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains unresolved as host nation officials will not allow perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.

‘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 standard practice for certain US administrations. It was anticipated when the rule was reinstated in January. 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 cover diversity programmes. Additional information regarding the policy's widened application are likely forthcoming. A leader in global maternal health says broadening the policy will have “catastrophic impacts”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that fresh American assistance deals being negotiated with countries in Africa will become contingent upon adopting the broadened restrictions.