A Quintet of Significant Developments in the Assault on the Freedoms of Women and Girls in the Past Year.
Twelve months prior, organisations advocating for women's rights were anticipating a new Trump administration. Scarcely anyone expected. The sheer number and rapid pace of administrative decrees emanating from the White House were regarded as a premeditated approach to cause confusion and fear. The tactic proved effective – there was confusion, anger and exhaustion as agencies hastened to compensate for the loss left by a freeze on international development funds. But the situation was about to worsen.
The Washington leadership has been the key driver, supported by vigorous campaigning by deeply conservative factions using the moment to strengthen global ties with like-minded governments.
The anti-rights movement signifies a transnational grouping of government figures, churches, and advocacy collectives as well as affluent financiers and clans that seek to undermine progress across a wide spectrum of issues. This covers abortion, LGBTQ rights, trans rights, non-traditional family structures and comprehensive sexuality education.
They pursue this agenda via pressuring states, backing lawsuits, disparaging UN work to advance equality, spreading disinformation, and funding non-profit organisations.
We review five episodes that affected the protection, honor, and existence of females globally.
USAID Effectively Dismantled
In March, six weeks after a major US aid agency is frozen, causing global disruption, a senior US official states that nearly all of the agency’s programmes will be eliminated. US diplomats, past leaders and humanitarian and health experts decry the decision, warning that people will die as a result. Human rights advocates 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. Many organisations say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by waning support, especially in conflict areas. As the year ends, evidence indicates how hundreds of thousands of people have already died from sickness, hunger, poor pregnancy healthcare, and abuse targeting females, with millions more to come. 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 an attempt to placate a powerful partner.
Conservative Religious Groups Lobby at UN Women Meeting
In the same month, several Christian-right organisations meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a strategic summit held alongside 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 optimistic frame of mind as they celebrate new Washington directives on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the global conference with a stark warning that “the poison of patriarchy” is resurgent, after a study indicates that anti-rights actors are actively undermining established norms on key women’s rights issues around the world.
African ‘Family Values’ Conferences
Over the summer, a sequence of gatherings in Africa centered on the conventional household and state autonomy triggers anxiety among rights advocates. In May, a president and first lady open a significant conference to push back on what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A shortly thereafter, another regional summit on traditional morals is held. Both events are graced by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to resist “international liberal agenda” of international organizations. In June, a major religious institution hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in the region, an event that health activists say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Campaigners note that the extent of foreign involvement has expanded considerably.
American Plan to Burn Birth Control
As medical centers in numerous African countries report they are facing shortages of birth control, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in July plans to destroy millions of dollars worth of contraceptives held in a storage facility in Belgium. A leading family planning organization states that their elimination will deprive countless females from contraceptive supplies, and lead to a public health crisis of unwanted pregnancies. The organization labels the plan an dogmatic choice “about forcing a conservative worldview globally” 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 in deadlock as host nation officials are blocking usable products to be destroyed.
Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy
Reinstating the Mexico City Policy, which cuts American funding for groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is commonplace under certain US administrations. It was anticipated when the rule was reinstated in January. The administration also signed onto a conservative consensus document. But in October, the US announces it intends to broaden the scope of the policy to include national governments and international bodies in addition to NGOs, and to include DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) projects. Additional information regarding the policy's widened application are expected in early 2026. A director of a major health partnership says widening the scope will have “catastrophic impacts”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that upcoming Washington funding agreements being discussed with African nations will become dependent on agreeing to the broadened restrictions.
