Five Significant Developments in the Rollback of the Rights of Women and Girls in the Past Year.
A year ago, women’s rights organisations were anticipating a Trump presidency sequel. Scarcely anyone expected. The sheer number and rapid pace of White House mandates coming out of the White House were regarded as a calculated strategy to overwhelm and create panic. This strategy had its intended impact – there was disarray, outrage, and weariness as agencies hastened to compensate for the loss left by a freeze on international development funds. But this was only the precursor.
The US administration has been the central catalyst, bolstered by intense advocacy work by deeply conservative factions capitalizing on the climate to forge international alliances with ideological partners.
The movement against gender equality signifies a transnational grouping of elected officials, faith-based bodies, non-governmental organisations as well as billionaire families and individuals that strive to weaken advances on numerous fronts. This encompasses abortion, LGBTQ rights, trans rights, non-traditional family structures and comprehensive sexuality education.
They achieve this through advocating to officials, financing legal challenges, sabotaging multilateral work to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.
We analyze five episodes that affected the welfare, autonomy, and survival of girls and women.
The Dismantling of USAID
In March, shortly after a prominent humanitarian funder is halted, causing global disruption, a senior US official reveals that nearly all of the agency’s programmes will be eliminated. Career diplomats, past leaders and aid and medical specialists criticize the move, predicting that people will die as a result. Rights defenders 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. Many organisations say females will bear the brunt by diminishing aid, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, reports confirm 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. Another pair of leading funders initiate similar reductions. A leader of an international advocacy group says a decision to slash billions in overseas assistance is an attempt to placate a powerful partner.
Conservative Religious Groups Lobby at UN Women Meeting
In the same month, several Christian-right organisations meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a two-day conference held alongside the annual UN Women gathering. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in optimistic frame of mind as they welcome new Washington directives on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the global conference with a grave caution that “the poison of patriarchy” is returning, after a study indicates that groups opposing progressive rights are actively undermining longstanding consensus on key women’s rights issues around the world.
Summits Promoting Conservative Norms
Over the warmer months, a series of conferences in Africa themed around the conventional household and state autonomy sparks alarm among human rights defenders. In May, a president and first lady open a significant conference to combat what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A few days later, another Pan-African conference on conservative ethics is held. Both events are participated in by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker urges African NGOs to push back against “international liberal agenda” of global institutions. In June, a prominent church hosts a event focused on reinforcing families in the region, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Campaigners note that the scale of their presence has increased markedly.
American Plan to Burn Birth Control
As medical centers in numerous African countries report they are running out of contraceptives, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in July plans to incinerate millions of dollars worth of contraceptives held in a warehouse in Europe. A global sexual health network states that their destruction will deny a huge female population from contraceptive supplies, 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 calculated move to control fertility”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains in deadlock as local authorities are blocking usable products to be destroyed.
Broader Restrictions on Aid
Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, which prohibits Washington's support for groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is standard practice for 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 October, the US announces it intends to broaden the scope of the policy 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 broadening the policy will have “devastating consequences”. Pro-choice activists fear that new US aid packages being discussed with African nations will become conditional on accepting the expanded global gag.
