Five Major Key Moments in the Erosion of the Freedoms of Women and Girls in 2025.
This time last year, organisations advocating for women's rights were anticipating a new Trump administration. Few were prepared for. The volume and speed of presidential directives issued from the White House were viewed as a calculated strategy to cause confusion and fear. In many ways it worked – there was chaos, resentment, and burnout as networks struggled to plug the hole left by a sudden aid suspension. But this was only the precursor.
The Washington leadership has been the key driver, aided by intense advocacy work by far-right organisations seizing the opportunity to forge international alliances with political allies.
Often termed the anti-gender movement describes a worldwide alliance 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. Areas targeted involve abortion, LGBTQ rights, trans rights, non-traditional family structures and comprehensive sexuality education.
They accomplish their goals by advocating to officials, financing legal challenges, sabotaging multilateral work to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.
We analyze five episodes that shaped the safety, dignity and lives of the female population.
USAID Dismantled
In early spring, six weeks after a prominent humanitarian funder is its funds are blocked, causing widespread distress, a senior US official announces that over eighty percent of the body's projects will be terminated. US diplomats, former presidents and aid and medical specialists condemn the news, stating that people will die as a result. Rights defenders say that the dismantling of this institution is more than a funding crisis, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and birth control and maternal healthcare. Numerous groups say the impact on girls and women will be severe by waning support, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, reports confirm how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from sickness, hunger, poor pregnancy healthcare, and abuse targeting females, with millions more to come. Another pair of leading funders proceed with parallel slashes. A leader of an international advocacy group says a decision to slash billions in overseas assistance is a move to appease a political ally.
Christian-Right Groups Raise Voices During UN Women Summit
In the same month, several faith-based advocacy networks meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a two-day conference held alongside the annual UN Women gathering. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in buoyant mood as they applaud changes in American foreign policy on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the global conference with a grave caution that “the poison of patriarchy” is returning, after a analysis demonstrates that anti-rights actors are deliberately weakening longstanding consensus on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.
African ‘Family Values’ Conferences
Over the warmer months, a sequence of gatherings in Africa focused on the traditional family and national sovereignty triggers anxiety among equality campaigners. In early May, a head of state and partner open a significant conference to resist what they label external influences undermining local norms. A soon after, another regional summit on family values is held. Both events are attended by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker calls on African NGOs to push back against “international liberal agenda” of international organizations. In the following month, a prominent church hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in the region, an event that reproductive rights advocates say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Advocates remark that the scale of their presence has increased markedly.
Contraceptive Destruction Order
As health facilities across Africa report they are running out of contraceptives, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in July plans to dispose of a vast stockpile of birth control held in a storage facility in Belgium. A global sexual health network states that their destruction will deny millions of women and girls from access to birth control, 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 international emergency medical charity calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains in deadlock as the regional government will not allow perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.
Broader Restrictions on Aid
Reviving the global gag rule, which prohibits Washington's support for groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is commonplace under certain US administrations. It was anticipated when the rule was reinstated in January. The administration also rejoined an international anti-abortion agreement. 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 cover diversity programmes. Further specifics about the policy's widened application are likely forthcoming. A director of a major health partnership says extending the reach will have “unimaginable effects”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that new US aid packages being negotiated with countries in Africa will become contingent upon adopting the expanded global gag.
