A Quintet of Landmark Occurrences in the Attack on the Freedoms of Women and Girls in 2025.

Twelve months prior, groups dedicated to gender equality were steeling themselves against a Trump presidency sequel. Hardly anyone anticipated. The torrent and swiftness of presidential directives originating in the White House were seen as a calculated strategy to cause confusion and fear. In many ways it worked – there was bewilderment, fury, and fatigue as organisations scrambled to compensate for the loss left by a major funding freeze. But this was only the precursor.

The US administration has been the key driver, bolstered by fervent lobbying efforts by far-right organisations capitalizing on the climate to forge international alliances with political allies.

This opposition to progressive rights refers to a global network of political leaders, religious institutions, civil society groups as well as billionaire families and individuals that work to dismantle progress across a wide spectrum of issues. This encompasses pro-choice policies, equality for sexual minorities, gender identity recognition, and inclusive relationship teaching.

They accomplish their goals by lobbying governments, supporting court cases, discrediting international efforts to promote fairness, circulating falsehoods, and resourcing aligned NGOs.

We examine five junctures that shaped the security, respect, and well-being of girls and women.

USAID Effectively Dismantled

In early spring, shortly after a prominent humanitarian funder is its funds are blocked, causing international chaos, a top American diplomat announces that over eighty percent of the body's projects will be terminated. Career diplomats, ex-presidents and aid and medical specialists condemn the news, predicting that mortality will increase. Human rights advocates say that the closure of the organization is more than a funding crisis, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and access to contraception and reproductive health services. Numerous groups say females will bear the brunt by reduced funding, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, evidence indicates 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. Additional key contributing countries follow with their own cuts. A director of a global justice organization says a move to cut foreign aid drastically is a gesture of alignment with another government's agenda.

Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference

In March, several conservative religious groups meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a two-day conference held alongside the UN's flagship gender equality meeting. It is an chance to exchange strategies on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. 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 toxin of gendered hierarchy” is back, after a study indicates that groups opposing progressive rights are deliberately weakening historic agreements on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.

African ‘Family Values’ Conferences

Over the summer, a series of conferences in Africa themed around the traditional family and national sovereignty sparks alarm among equality campaigners. In the start of May, a president and first lady open a major forum to push back on what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A soon after, another continental gathering on traditional morals is held. Both events are participated in by leading Western campaigners against gender ideology, including leaders of well-known groups. One speaker urges African NGOs to stand up to “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of multilateral bodies. In the following month, a major religious institution hosts a family strengthening conference in an African nation, an event that health activists say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Advocates remark that the scale of their presence has increased markedly.

American Plan to Burn Birth Control

As medical centers in numerous African countries report they are depleting their stocks of family planning supplies, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in midsummer plans to incinerate millions of dollars worth of contraceptives held in a European depot. A global sexual health network states that their elimination will deprive 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 imposing an anti-rights agenda on the entire world” and “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A international emergency medical charity calls it “heartless and dangerous”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains in deadlock as the regional government are blocking usable products to be destroyed.

‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded

Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, which cuts American funding 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 reaffirmed membership in a pro-life declaration. 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. Further specifics about the broader enforcement are anticipated next year. A director of a major health partnership says broadening the policy will have “catastrophic impacts”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that new US aid packages being arranged with states on the continent will become conditional on accepting the expanded global gag.