A Quintet of Key Moments in the Rollback of the Rights of Females in the Year 2025.
Twelve months prior, feminist advocacy groups were preparing for a Trump presidency sequel. Scarcely anyone expected. The flood and velocity of executive orders originating in the White House were viewed as a intentional maneuver to overwhelm and create panic. In many ways it worked – there was confusion, anger and exhaustion as groups rushed to compensate for the loss left by a major funding freeze. But that was just the beginning.
The American government has been the key driver, aided by fervent lobbying efforts by ultra-conservative groups seizing the opportunity to build worldwide connections with sympathetic regimes.
The anti-rights movement signifies a transnational grouping of political leaders, religious institutions, civil society groups as well as ultra-rich backers and donors that work to dismantle forward movement on multiple topics. This covers pro-choice policies, equality for sexual minorities, gender identity recognition, and inclusive relationship teaching.
They do this by influencing policymakers, funding litigation, undermining global initiatives to push for parity, disseminating propaganda, and supporting ideologically-matched groups.
We examine five junctures that impacted the security, respect, and well-being of the female population.
The Dismantling of USAID
In the month of March, six weeks after a major US aid agency is suspended, causing widespread distress, a leading figure in the administration states that a vast majority of the organization's initiatives will be axed. US diplomats, former presidents and relief and public health authorities criticize the move, stating that fatalities will ensue. Activists say that the demise of the agency is not just a financial shortfall, it is a savage attack on human rights and family planning and reproductive care. Many organisations say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by diminishing aid, especially in regions of instability. 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. Another pair of leading funders initiate similar reductions. 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.
Christian-Right Groups Raise Voices During UN Women Summit
In March, several conservative religious groups meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a two-day conference held concurrently with the international conference on women's rights. It is an chance to exchange strategies on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in high spirits as they applaud changes in American foreign policy on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the global conference with a stark warning that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is resurgent, after a analysis demonstrates that groups opposing progressive rights are actively undermining longstanding consensus on core aspects of gender equality around the world.
Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa
Over the warmer months, a cluster of meetings in Africa themed around the traditional family and national sovereignty sparks alarm among rights advocates. In the start of May, a national leader and spouse open a major forum to push back on what they label external influences undermining local norms. A few days later, another Pan-African conference on family values is held. Both events are graced by leading American and European conservative activists, including leaders of well-known groups. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to resist “radical global social engineering” of global institutions. In June, a major religious institution hosts a family strengthening conference in an African nation, an event that reproductive rights advocates say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Activists observe that the scale of their presence has expanded considerably.
Contraceptive Destruction Order
As health facilities across Africa report they are depleting their stocks of family planning supplies, including emergency kits for survivors of sexual violence, the US announces in midsummer plans to dispose of a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a warehouse in Europe. A major reproductive health federation states that their incineration will prevent millions of women and girls from family planning options, and lead to a public health crisis of unwanted pregnancies. The organization labels the plan an ideological decision “about exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “a calculated move to control fertility”. A renowned doctors' group calls it “heartless and dangerous”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains in deadlock as local authorities will not allow the destruction of viable medicines.
Broader Restrictions on Aid
Reinstating the Mexico City Policy, which cuts American funding for groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is typical of certain US administrations. It was widely expected when the ban was reimposed in January. The administration also reaffirmed membership in a pro-life declaration. But in October, the US announces it intends to extend the restrictions to include national governments and international bodies in addition to NGOs, and to include DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) projects. Further specifics about the expansion of the rule are expected in early 2026. A expert in child welfare says extending the reach will have “unimaginable effects”. Pro-choice activists fear that upcoming Washington funding agreements being arranged with states on the continent will become dependent on agreeing to the expanded global gag.
