Five Major Pivotal Events in the Assault on the Freedoms of Women and Girls in 2025.

A year ago, feminist advocacy groups were bracing themselves for a new Trump administration. Few were prepared for. The flood and velocity of White House mandates coming out of the White House were seen as a calculated strategy to cause confusion and fear. The tactic proved effective – there was disarray, outrage, and weariness as groups rushed to compensate for the loss left by a sudden aid suspension. But this merely marked the opening act.

The Trump administration has been the main instigator, complemented by fervent lobbying efforts by far-right organisations capitalizing on the climate to forge international alliances with like-minded governments.

The anti-rights movement signifies a transnational grouping of political leaders, religious institutions, civil society groups as well as affluent financiers and clans that seek to undermine forward movement on multiple topics. Areas targeted involve pro-choice policies, equality for sexual minorities, gender identity recognition, and inclusive relationship teaching.

They do this by influencing policymakers, funding litigation, undermining global initiatives to promote fairness, circulating falsehoods, and resourcing aligned NGOs.

We review five moments that affected the security, respect, and well-being of girls and women.

The Dismantling of USAID

In the month of March, a month and a half following a key American development organization is halted, causing turmoil around the world, a top American diplomat reveals that nearly all of the institution's work will be scrapped. American foreign service officers, former presidents and aid and medical specialists criticize the move, cautioning that fatalities will ensue. Activists say that the dismantling of this institution is more than a funding crisis, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and birth control and maternal healthcare. A multitude of agencies say females will bear the brunt by shrinking assistance, especially in war zones. As the year ends, evidence indicates how hundreds of thousands of people have already died from sickness, hunger, poor pregnancy healthcare, and abuse targeting females, with millions more to come. Another pair of leading funders announce their own austerity measures. A director of a global justice organization says a move to cut foreign aid drastically is an attempt to placate a powerful partner.

Conservative Religious Groups Lobby at UN Women Meeting

In March, several faith-based advocacy networks meet in an high-end hotel in NYC for a biannual gathering held in parallel with 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 celebrate new Washington directives on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the gender equality forum with a stark warning that “the venom of male dominance” is returning, after a study indicates that groups opposing progressive rights are actively undermining historic agreements on key women’s rights issues around the world.

Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa

Over the summer, a series of conferences in Africa focused on the conventional household and state autonomy raises concerns among human rights defenders. In May, a national leader and spouse open a large assembly to resist what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A shortly thereafter, another continental gathering on family values is held. Both events are attended by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker calls on African NGOs to push back against “international liberal agenda” of international organizations. In the following month, a prominent church hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in an African nation, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Advocates remark that the level of external participation has grown significantly.

Contraceptive Destruction Order

As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa report they are running out of contraceptives, including emergency kits for survivors of sexual violence, the US announces in midsummer plans to destroy a vast stockpile of birth control held in a warehouse in Europe. A global sexual health network states that their destruction will deny millions of women and girls from access to birth control, and lead to hundreds of thousands of unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions. The organization labels the plan an politically-motivated move “about exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “a deliberate form of reproductive oppression”. A renowned doctors' group calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains in deadlock as the regional government refuse to permit perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.

‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded

Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, which halts US aid to groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is commonplace under certain US administrations. It came as no surprise when the policy was restored in January. The administration also rejoined an international anti-abortion agreement. But in the autumn, the US announces it intends to broaden the scope of the policy to include governments and multilateral organisations in addition to NGOs, and to include DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) projects. Further specifics about the broader enforcement are likely forthcoming. A director of a major health partnership says broadening the policy will have “unimaginable effects”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that new US aid packages being arranged with states on the continent will become contingent upon adopting the new, wider policy.