Five Defining Significant Developments in the Erosion of the Freedoms of Women and Girls in the Year 2025.
This time last year, feminist advocacy groups were bracing themselves for a second Trump term. The ensuing chaos was largely unforeseen. The sheer number and rapid pace of executive orders issued from the White House were interpreted as a deliberate tactic to overwhelm and create panic. To a large extent, it succeeded – there was bewilderment, fury, and fatigue as organisations scrambled to plug the hole left by a abrupt cessation of financial support. But this was only the precursor.
The US administration has been the key driver, supported by relentless activism by religious fundamentalist networks exploiting the situation to solidify transnational relationships with sympathetic regimes.
The anti-rights movement describes a worldwide alliance of policymakers, doctrinal establishments, and activist outfits as well as billionaire families and individuals that strive to weaken progress across a wide spectrum of issues. Areas targeted involve abortion, LGBTQ rights, trans rights, non-traditional family structures and comprehensive sexuality education.
They accomplish their goals by pressuring states, backing lawsuits, disparaging UN work to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.
We examine five episodes that affected the welfare, autonomy, and survival of girls and women.
USAID Dismantled
In early spring, shortly after a key American development organization is halted, causing international chaos, a senior US official states that over eighty percent of the institution's work will be scrapped. Career diplomats, past leaders and relief and public health authorities decry the decision, stating that mortality will increase. Human rights advocates say that the demise of the agency is greater than a budgetary issue, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and access to contraception and reproductive health services. A multitude of agencies say females will bear the brunt by waning support, especially in war zones. 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. Two other major donor nations announce their own austerity measures. A leader of an international advocacy group says a decision to slash billions in overseas assistance is an attempt to placate a powerful partner.
Christian-Right Groups Raise Voices During UN Women Summit
In March, several Christian-right organisations meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a strategic summit held alongside the annual UN Women gathering. It is an forum to discuss methods on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in high spirits as they welcome new Washington directives on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the gender equality forum with a somber alert that “the venom of male dominance” is returning, after a analysis demonstrates that opponents of gender equality are deliberately weakening historic agreements on key women’s rights issues around the world.
African ‘Family Values’ Conferences
Over the warmer months, a cluster of meetings in Africa centered on the conservative family structures and national independence raises concerns among equality campaigners. In early May, a president and first lady open a large assembly to combat what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A soon after, another continental gathering on traditional morals is held. Both events are graced by leading Western campaigners against gender ideology, including heads of influential networks. One speaker calls on African NGOs to resist “international liberal agenda” of multilateral bodies. In June, a prominent church hosts a family strengthening conference in the region, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Campaigners note that the scale of their presence has expanded considerably.
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 July plans to destroy a vast stockpile of birth control held in a warehouse in Europe. A leading family planning organization 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 politically-motivated move “about imposing an anti-rights agenda on the entire world” and “a calculated move to control fertility”. A renowned doctors' group calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains at a standstill as host nation officials will not allow perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.
‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded
Reviving the global gag rule, which halts US aid to groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is commonplace under certain US administrations. It was widely expected when the ban was reimposed in January. The administration also rejoined an international anti-abortion agreement. 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 encompass equity and inclusion initiatives. Additional information regarding the broader enforcement are anticipated next year. A director of a major health partnership says widening the scope will have “catastrophic impacts”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that fresh American assistance deals being discussed with African nations will become contingent upon adopting the new, wider policy.
