🔗 Share this article Five Significant Developments in the Rollback of the Freedoms of Women and Girls in the Year 2025. Twelve months prior, organisations advocating for women's rights were bracing themselves for a new Trump administration. Scarcely anyone expected. The volume and speed of presidential directives emanating from the White House were regarded as a deliberate tactic to paralyze through overload. The tactic proved effective – there was chaos, resentment, and burnout as groups rushed to address the shortfall left by a abrupt cessation of financial support. But that was just the beginning. The US administration has been the primary force, supported by intense advocacy work by deeply conservative factions using the moment to build worldwide connections with political allies. Often termed the anti-gender movement signifies a transnational grouping 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. This encompasses access to termination, gay and trans protections, alternative households, and factual sexual instruction. They achieve this through lobbying governments, supporting court cases, discrediting international efforts to advance equality, spreading disinformation, and funding non-profit organisations. We look at five episodes that impacted the security, respect, and well-being of women and girls. USAID Effectively Dismantled In the month of March, six weeks after a major US aid agency is its funds are blocked, causing global disruption, a top American diplomat states that a vast majority of the institution's work will be scrapped. US diplomats, past leaders and humanitarian and health experts condemn the news, cautioning that lives will be lost. Rights defenders say that the dismantling of this institution is more than a funding crisis, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and family planning and reproductive care. A multitude of agencies say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by diminishing aid, especially in war zones. As the year ends, data shows how hundreds of thousands of people have already died from disease, starvation, lack of access to maternal care and gender-based violence, with many more millions at risk. Another pair of leading funders announce their own austerity measures. A leader of an international advocacy group says a choice to reduce international development funding is a move to appease a political ally. Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference In March, several faith-based advocacy networks meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a two-day conference held in parallel with the annual UN Women gathering. It is an chance to exchange strategies on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in optimistic frame of mind as they welcome changes in American foreign policy on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the gender equality forum with a stark warning that “the poison of patriarchy” is back, after a analysis demonstrates that anti-rights actors are actively undermining established norms on core aspects of gender equality around the world. Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa Over the warmer months, a sequence of gatherings in Africa centered on the conservative family structures and national independence sparks alarm among rights advocates. In the start of May, a president and first lady open a significant conference to resist what they label external influences undermining local norms. A few days later, another Pan-African conference on family values is held. Both events are attended by leading American and European conservative activists, including heads of influential networks. One speaker urges African NGOs to resist “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of international organizations. In June, a global faith group hosts a family strengthening conference in an African nation, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Activists observe that the level of external participation has increased markedly. American Plan to Burn Birth Control As medical centers in numerous African countries report they are facing shortages of birth control, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in July plans to incinerate a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a warehouse in Europe. A major reproductive health federation states that their elimination will deprive millions of women and girls from access to birth control, and lead to hundreds of thousands of unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions. The organization labels the plan an ideological decision “about imposing an anti-rights agenda on the entire world” and “a calculated move to control fertility”. A international emergency medical charity calls it “callous and reckless”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains at a standstill as the regional government refuse to permit usable products to be destroyed. ‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded 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 anticipated when the ban was reimposed in January. The administration also rejoined an international anti-abortion agreement. But in October, the US announces it intends to expand the global gag rule to include governments and multilateral organisations in addition to NGOs, and to encompass equity and inclusion initiatives. Further specifics about the expansion of the rule are likely forthcoming. A director of a major health partnership says widening the scope will have “unimaginable effects”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that fresh American assistance deals being arranged with states on the continent will become dependent on agreeing to the broadened restrictions.
Twelve months prior, organisations advocating for women's rights were bracing themselves for a new Trump administration. Scarcely anyone expected. The volume and speed of presidential directives emanating from the White House were regarded as a deliberate tactic to paralyze through overload. The tactic proved effective – there was chaos, resentment, and burnout as groups rushed to address the shortfall left by a abrupt cessation of financial support. But that was just the beginning. The US administration has been the primary force, supported by intense advocacy work by deeply conservative factions using the moment to build worldwide connections with political allies. Often termed the anti-gender movement signifies a transnational grouping 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. This encompasses access to termination, gay and trans protections, alternative households, and factual sexual instruction. They achieve this through lobbying governments, supporting court cases, discrediting international efforts to advance equality, spreading disinformation, and funding non-profit organisations. We look at five episodes that impacted the security, respect, and well-being of women and girls. USAID Effectively Dismantled In the month of March, six weeks after a major US aid agency is its funds are blocked, causing global disruption, a top American diplomat states that a vast majority of the institution's work will be scrapped. US diplomats, past leaders and humanitarian and health experts condemn the news, cautioning that lives will be lost. Rights defenders say that the dismantling of this institution is more than a funding crisis, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and family planning and reproductive care. A multitude of agencies say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by diminishing aid, especially in war zones. As the year ends, data shows how hundreds of thousands of people have already died from disease, starvation, lack of access to maternal care and gender-based violence, with many more millions at risk. Another pair of leading funders announce their own austerity measures. A leader of an international advocacy group says a choice to reduce international development funding is a move to appease a political ally. Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference In March, several faith-based advocacy networks meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a two-day conference held in parallel with the annual UN Women gathering. It is an chance to exchange strategies on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in optimistic frame of mind as they welcome changes in American foreign policy on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the gender equality forum with a stark warning that “the poison of patriarchy” is back, after a analysis demonstrates that anti-rights actors are actively undermining established norms on core aspects of gender equality around the world. Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa Over the warmer months, a sequence of gatherings in Africa centered on the conservative family structures and national independence sparks alarm among rights advocates. In the start of May, a president and first lady open a significant conference to resist what they label external influences undermining local norms. A few days later, another Pan-African conference on family values is held. Both events are attended by leading American and European conservative activists, including heads of influential networks. One speaker urges African NGOs to resist “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of international organizations. In June, a global faith group hosts a family strengthening conference in an African nation, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Activists observe that the level of external participation has increased markedly. American Plan to Burn Birth Control As medical centers in numerous African countries report they are facing shortages of birth control, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in July plans to incinerate a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a warehouse in Europe. A major reproductive health federation states that their elimination will deprive millions of women and girls from access to birth control, and lead to hundreds of thousands of unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions. The organization labels the plan an ideological decision “about imposing an anti-rights agenda on the entire world” and “a calculated move to control fertility”. A international emergency medical charity calls it “callous and reckless”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains at a standstill as the regional government refuse to permit usable products to be destroyed. ‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded 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 anticipated when the ban was reimposed in January. The administration also rejoined an international anti-abortion agreement. But in October, the US announces it intends to expand the global gag rule to include governments and multilateral organisations in addition to NGOs, and to encompass equity and inclusion initiatives. Further specifics about the expansion of the rule are likely forthcoming. A director of a major health partnership says widening the scope will have “unimaginable effects”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that fresh American assistance deals being arranged with states on the continent will become dependent on agreeing to the broadened restrictions.