Five Significant Developments in the Erosion of the Freedoms of Women and Girls in the Year 2025.
A year ago, feminist advocacy groups were bracing themselves for a new Trump administration. Scarcely anyone expected. The sheer number and rapid pace of White House mandates emanating from the White House were interpreted as a intentional maneuver to induce a state of shock. This strategy had its intended impact – there was confusion, anger and exhaustion as organisations scrambled to address the shortfall left by a abrupt cessation of financial support. But that was just the beginning.
The American government has been the key driver, complemented by vigorous campaigning by religious fundamentalist networks using the moment to forge international alliances with like-minded governments.
This opposition to progressive rights describes a worldwide alliance of political leaders, religious institutions, civil society groups as well as ultra-rich backers and donors that seek to undermine forward movement on multiple topics. This encompasses reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.
They pursue this agenda via pressuring states, backing lawsuits, disparaging UN work to promote fairness, circulating falsehoods, and resourcing aligned NGOs.
We analyze five junctures that affected the security, respect, and well-being of women and girls.
USAID Effectively Dismantled
In March, six weeks after a major US aid agency is suspended, causing turmoil around the world, a top American diplomat reveals that the lion's share of the organization's initiatives will be axed. Career diplomats, ex-presidents and relief and public health authorities decry the decision, predicting that mortality will increase. Activists say that the closure of the organization is more than a funding crisis, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and family planning and reproductive care. Numerous groups say the impact on girls and women will be severe by diminishing aid, especially in conflict areas. 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 millions more to come. Two other major donor nations initiate similar reductions. A head of a worldwide campaign network says a move to cut foreign aid drastically is a move to appease a political ally.
Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference
In the same month, several Christian-right organisations meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a strategic summit held concurrently with the annual UN Women gathering. It is an chance to exchange strategies on how to counter the UN's progressive policies. They are in buoyant mood as they celebrate changes in American foreign policy on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the gender equality forum with a somber alert that “the venom of male dominance” is back, after a analysis demonstrates that anti-rights actors are deliberately weakening historic agreements on core aspects of gender equality around the world.
Summits Promoting Conservative Norms
Over the summer, a sequence of gatherings in Africa centered on the conservative family structures and national independence raises concerns among equality campaigners. In early May, a head of state and partner open a significant conference to push back on what they label external influences undermining local norms. A soon after, another Pan-African conference on family values 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 stand up to “international liberal agenda” of international organizations. In June, a prominent church hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in West Africa, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Advocates remark that the level of external participation has grown significantly.
American Plan to Burn Birth Control
As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa report they are running out of contraceptives, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in midsummer 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 a huge female population from family planning options, and lead to a surge in unplanned pregnancies and dangerous terminations. The organization labels the plan an politically-motivated move “about exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “callous and reckless”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can be distributed to those in need, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains unresolved as local authorities refuse to permit perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.
Broader Restrictions on Aid
Reviving the global gag rule, which halts US aid to groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is standard practice for certain US administrations. It came as no surprise when the policy was restored in the first month of the year. The administration also signed onto a conservative consensus document. But in the autumn, the US announces it intends to broaden the scope of the policy to include sovereign states and UN agencies 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 extending the reach will have “catastrophic impacts”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that new US aid packages being negotiated with countries in Africa will become dependent on agreeing to the expanded global gag.
