Five Defining Significant Developments in the Assault on the Rights of Women and Girls in 2025.
Twelve months prior, women’s rights organisations were bracing themselves for a new Trump administration. Few were prepared for. The sheer number and rapid pace of presidential directives originating in the White House were seen as a deliberate tactic to paralyze through overload. To a large extent, it succeeded – there was disarray, outrage, and weariness as organisations scrambled to address the shortfall left by a sudden aid suspension. But this was only the precursor.
The US administration has been the primary force, complemented by intense advocacy work by deeply conservative factions using the moment to solidify transnational relationships with sympathetic regimes.
The anti-rights movement refers to a global network of government figures, churches, and advocacy collectives as well as billionaire families and individuals that strive to weaken advances on numerous fronts. These include reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.
They do this by pressuring states, backing lawsuits, disparaging UN work to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.
We look at five episodes that affected the welfare, autonomy, and survival of women and girls.
USAID Effectively Dismantled
In March, shortly after a key American development organization is its funds are blocked, causing global disruption, a senior US official reveals that nearly all of the agency’s programmes will be eliminated. American foreign service officers, former presidents and humanitarian and health experts decry the decision, predicting that fatalities will ensue. Rights defenders say that the demise of the agency is not just a financial shortfall, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and access to contraception and reproductive health services. Many organisations say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by waning support, especially in war zones. As the year ends, evidence indicates how hundreds of thousands of people have already died from disease, starvation, lack of access to maternal care and gender-based violence, with a far greater catastrophe looming. Additional key contributing countries follow with their own cuts. A leader of an international advocacy group says a choice to reduce international development funding is a gesture of alignment with another government's agenda.
Christian-Right Groups Raise Voices During UN Women Summit
In the same month, several conservative religious groups meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a strategic summit 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 optimistic frame of mind as they applaud new Washington directives on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the women’s summit with a stark warning that “the poison of patriarchy” is resurgent, after a analysis demonstrates that anti-rights actors are actively undermining established norms on core aspects of gender equality around the world.
Summits Promoting Conservative Norms
Over the warmer months, a cluster of meetings in Africa centered on the conventional household and state autonomy sparks alarm among rights advocates. In early May, a president and first lady open a significant conference to combat what they label external influences undermining local norms. A shortly thereafter, another Pan-African conference on traditional morals is held. Both events are graced by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including leaders of well-known groups. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to resist “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of international organizations. In June, a major religious institution hosts a family strengthening conference in the region, an event that reproductive rights advocates say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Advocates remark that the scale of their presence has expanded considerably.
Contraceptive Destruction Order
As health facilities across Africa report they are running out of contraceptives, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in July plans to destroy millions of dollars worth of contraceptives held in a storage facility in Belgium. A major reproductive health federation states that their elimination will deprive millions of women and girls from access to birth control, and lead to a surge in unplanned pregnancies and dangerous terminations. The organization labels the plan an dogmatic choice “about imposing an anti-rights agenda on the entire world” and “a deliberate form of reproductive oppression”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “heartless and dangerous”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains unresolved as local authorities are blocking perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.
Broader Restrictions on Aid
Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, which cuts American funding for groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is commonplace under certain US administrations. It was widely expected 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 governments and multilateral organisations in addition to NGOs, and to encompass equity and inclusion initiatives. Additional information regarding the expansion of the rule are expected in early 2026. A expert in child welfare says extending the reach will have “catastrophic impacts”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that upcoming Washington funding agreements being negotiated with countries in Africa will become contingent upon adopting the broadened restrictions.
