A Quintet of Pivotal Events in the Erosion of the Freedoms of Women and Girls in the Past Year.
Twelve months prior, women’s rights organisations were anticipating a return of Donald Trump to office. Scarcely anyone expected. The sheer number and rapid pace of presidential directives coming out of the White House were interpreted as a deliberate tactic to cause confusion and fear. This strategy had its intended impact – there was chaos, resentment, and burnout as organisations scrambled to plug the hole left by a abrupt cessation of financial support. But this merely marked the opening act.
The US administration has been the primary force, aided by fervent lobbying efforts by ultra-conservative groups seizing the opportunity to forge international alliances with like-minded governments.
Often termed the anti-gender movement describes a worldwide alliance of policymakers, doctrinal establishments, and activist outfits as well as billionaire families and individuals that seek to undermine progress across a wide spectrum of issues. Areas targeted involve reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.
They achieve this through pressuring states, backing lawsuits, disparaging UN work to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.
We look at five moments that shaped the security, respect, and well-being of girls and women.
The Demise of a Major Aid Agency
In the month of March, six weeks after a key American development organization is its funds are blocked, causing turmoil around the world, a leading figure in the administration reveals that over eighty percent of the organization's initiatives will be axed. US diplomats, former presidents and relief and public health authorities condemn the news, cautioning that people will die as a result. Activists say that the demise of the agency is not just a financial shortfall, it is a savage attack on human rights and access to contraception and reproductive health services. Numerous groups say females will bear the brunt by reduced funding, especially in war zones. As the year ends, evidence indicates how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from disease, starvation, lack of access to maternal care and gender-based violence, with many more millions at risk. Another pair of leading funders announce their own austerity measures. A head of a worldwide campaign network says a decision to slash billions in overseas assistance is a gesture of alignment with another government's agenda.
Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference
In the same month, several faith-based advocacy networks meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a biannual gathering held concurrently with the UN's flagship gender equality meeting. It is an forum to discuss methods on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in buoyant mood as they celebrate shifts in US policy on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the women’s summit with a somber alert that “the poison of patriarchy” is back, after a report shows that opponents of gender equality are actively undermining longstanding consensus on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.
Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa
Over the warmer months, a sequence of gatherings in Africa centered on the conventional household and state autonomy sparks alarm among rights advocates. In May, a head of state and partner open a large assembly to resist what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A soon after, another Pan-African conference on traditional morals is held. Both events are attended by leading American and European conservative activists, including leaders of well-known groups. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to stand up to “international liberal agenda” of international organizations. In June, a global faith group hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in the region, an event that reproductive rights advocates say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Advocates remark that the extent of foreign involvement has increased markedly.
US Threat to Destroy Contraceptives
As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa report they are depleting their stocks of family planning supplies, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in July plans to incinerate a vast stockpile of birth control held in a European depot. A leading family planning organization states that their destruction will deny millions of women and girls from contraceptive supplies, 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 deliberate form of reproductive oppression”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “callous and reckless”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can be distributed to those in need, 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
Reviving the global gag rule, which halts US aid to groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is commonplace under certain US administrations. It was anticipated when the ban was reimposed in January. The administration also reaffirmed membership in a pro-life declaration. But in the autumn, 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 expected in early 2026. A director of a major health partnership says broadening the policy will have “devastating consequences”. 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.