Five Major Key Moments in the Assault on the Freedoms of Women and Girls in the Past Year.
Twelve months prior, feminist advocacy groups were preparing for a second Trump term. Scarcely anyone expected. The sheer number and rapid pace of administrative decrees emanating from the White House were seen as a calculated strategy to induce a state of shock. To a large extent, it succeeded – there was chaos, resentment, and burnout as groups rushed to fill the gap left by a major funding freeze. But this merely marked the opening act.
The Washington leadership has been the primary force, complemented by relentless activism by ultra-conservative groups exploiting the situation to build worldwide connections with sympathetic regimes.
This opposition to progressive rights describes a worldwide alliance of government figures, churches, and advocacy collectives as well as billionaire families and individuals that seek to undermine progress across a wide spectrum of issues. This encompasses reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.
They pursue this agenda via influencing policymakers, funding litigation, undermining global initiatives to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.
We examine five episodes that shaped the protection, honor, and existence of females globally.
USAID Dismantled
In March, shortly after a key American development organization is suspended, causing widespread distress, a top American diplomat states that the lion's share of the institution's work will be scrapped. American foreign service officers, past leaders and relief and public health authorities denounce the action, warning that people will die as a result. Rights defenders say that the dismantling of this institution 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 women and girls will be disproportionately affected by diminishing aid, especially in conflict areas. 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 many more millions at risk. Another pair of leading funders announce their own austerity measures. A head of a worldwide campaign network says a choice to reduce international development funding is a gesture of alignment with another government's agenda.
Conservative Religious Groups Lobby at UN Women Meeting
In March, several Christian-right organisations meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a biannual gathering held concurrently with the UN's flagship gender equality meeting. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in high spirits as they welcome new Washington directives on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the gender equality forum with a somber alert that “the venom of male dominance” is back, after a report shows that anti-rights actors are systematically eroding established norms on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.
Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa
Over the summer, a cluster of meetings in Africa centered on the conventional household and state autonomy sparks alarm among rights advocates. In the start of May, a national leader and spouse open a large assembly to resist what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A few days later, another Pan-African conference on family values is held. Both events are participated in by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including heads of influential networks. One speaker urges African NGOs to resist “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of global institutions. In the following month, a global faith group hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in the region, an event that health activists say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Advocates remark that the level of external participation has grown significantly.
US Threat to Destroy Contraceptives
As medical centers in numerous African countries report they are running out of contraceptives, including emergency kits for survivors of sexual violence, the US announces in midsummer plans to dispose of a vast stockpile of birth control held in a storage facility in Belgium. A major reproductive health federation states that their elimination will deprive a huge female population from family planning options, and lead to hundreds of thousands of unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions. The organization labels the plan an dogmatic choice “about exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “callous and reckless”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains at a standstill as local authorities will not allow the destruction of viable medicines.
Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy
Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, which halts US aid to groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is commonplace under certain US administrations. It was widely expected 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 include DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) projects. Additional information regarding the expansion of the rule are expected in early 2026. A leader in global maternal health says extending the reach will have “devastating consequences”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that fresh American assistance deals being arranged with states on the continent will become dependent on agreeing to the new, wider policy.
