Five Defining Crucial Incidents in the Assault on the Freedoms of Women and Girls in 2025.
This time last year, organisations advocating for women's rights were anticipating a return of Donald Trump to office. The ensuing chaos was largely unforeseen. The flood and velocity of presidential directives issued from the White House were interpreted as a calculated strategy to cause confusion and fear. In many ways it worked – there was confusion, anger and exhaustion as organisations scrambled to address the shortfall left by a major funding freeze. But that was just the beginning.
The Trump administration has been the key driver, aided by relentless activism by deeply conservative factions exploiting the situation to forge international alliances with political allies.
This opposition to progressive rights signifies a transnational grouping of government figures, churches, and advocacy collectives as well as affluent financiers and clans that strive to weaken forward movement on multiple topics. This encompasses access to termination, gay and trans protections, alternative households, and factual sexual instruction.
They pursue this agenda via pressuring states, backing lawsuits, disparaging UN work to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.
We examine five junctures that affected the safety, dignity and lives of women and girls.
The Dismantling of USAID
In March, shortly after a prominent humanitarian funder is suspended, causing widespread distress, a leading figure in the administration reveals that a vast majority of the institution's work will be scrapped. Career diplomats, past leaders and relief and public health authorities condemn the news, stating that people will die as a result. Activists say that the closure of the organization is greater than a budgetary issue, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and birth control and maternal healthcare. A multitude of agencies say the impact on girls and women will be severe by reduced funding, especially in conflict areas. As the year ends, data shows how hundreds of thousands of people have already died from disease, starvation, lack of access to maternal care and gender-based violence, with many more millions at risk. Two other major donor nations follow with their own cuts. A head of a worldwide campaign network says a decision to slash billions in overseas assistance is a move to appease a political ally.
Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference
In March, several faith-based advocacy networks meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a two-day conference held in parallel with the annual UN Women gathering. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in high spirits as they applaud changes in American foreign policy on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the global conference with a grave caution that “the venom of male dominance” is back, after a study indicates that anti-rights actors are actively undermining established norms on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.
Summits Promoting Conservative Norms
Over the warmer months, a series of conferences in Africa focused on the conservative family structures and national independence triggers anxiety among rights advocates. In the start of May, a head of state and partner open a major forum to resist what they label external influences undermining local norms. A shortly thereafter, another Pan-African conference on family values is held. Both events are graced by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including leaders of well-known groups. One speaker calls on African NGOs to resist “radical global social engineering” of global institutions. In June, a prominent church hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in an African nation, an event that reproductive rights advocates say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Activists observe that the extent of foreign involvement has grown significantly.
US Threat to Destroy Contraceptives
As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa report they are facing shortages of birth control, including emergency kits for survivors of sexual violence, the US announces in midsummer plans to incinerate a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a European depot. A global sexual health network states that their elimination will deprive countless females 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 exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “a deliberate form of reproductive oppression”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains at a standstill as the regional government will not allow perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.
‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded
Reinstating the Mexico City Policy, which halts US aid to groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is standard practice for certain US administrations. It was anticipated when the policy was restored in the first month of the year. The administration also rejoined an international anti-abortion agreement. But in October, the US announces it intends to expand the global gag rule to include sovereign states and UN agencies in addition to NGOs, and to encompass equity and inclusion initiatives. Additional information regarding the broader enforcement are expected in early 2026. A leader in global maternal health says widening the scope will have “devastating consequences”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that upcoming Washington funding agreements being arranged with states on the continent will become contingent upon adopting the broadened restrictions.
