Five Critical Crucial Incidents in the Rollback of the Rights of Females in the Past Year.
A year ago, feminist advocacy groups were anticipating a new Trump administration. Hardly anyone anticipated. The volume and speed of administrative decrees originating in the White House were interpreted as a deliberate tactic to cause confusion and fear. The tactic proved effective – there was confusion, anger and exhaustion as networks struggled to address the shortfall left by a abrupt cessation of financial support. But the situation was about to worsen.
The American government has been the key driver, aided by relentless activism by religious fundamentalist networks seizing the opportunity to forge international alliances with ideological partners.
This opposition to progressive rights signifies a transnational grouping of policymakers, doctrinal establishments, and activist outfits as well as billionaire families and individuals that seek to undermine gains in a variety of areas. This covers abortion, LGBTQ rights, trans rights, non-traditional family structures and comprehensive sexuality education.
They do this by pressuring states, backing lawsuits, disparaging UN work to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.
We review five moments that influenced the security, respect, and well-being of girls and women.
USAID Effectively Dismantled
In early spring, six weeks after a prominent humanitarian funder is frozen, causing international chaos, a top American diplomat announces that nearly all of the organization's initiatives will be axed. US diplomats, former presidents and relief and public health authorities condemn the news, cautioning that lives will be lost. Activists say that the demise of the agency is not just a financial shortfall, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and family planning and reproductive care. A multitude of agencies say the impact on girls and women will be severe by reduced funding, especially in war zones. As the year ends, statistics reveal how hundreds of thousands of people have already died from disease, starvation, lack of access to maternal care and gender-based violence, with millions more to come. Additional key contributing countries follow with their own cuts. A director of a global justice organization says a move to cut foreign aid drastically is an attempt to placate a powerful partner.
Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference
In March, several conservative religious groups meet in an high-end hotel in NYC for a biannual gathering held concurrently with the UN's flagship gender equality meeting. It is an forum to discuss methods on how to counter the UN's progressive policies. They are in high spirits as they applaud new Washington directives on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the gender equality forum with a grave caution that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is returning, after a report shows that groups opposing progressive rights are deliberately weakening historic agreements on core aspects of gender equality around the world.
African ‘Family Values’ Conferences
Over the warmer months, a sequence of gatherings in Africa themed around the conventional household and state autonomy sparks alarm among human rights defenders. In early May, a national leader and spouse open a major forum to combat what they label external influences undermining local norms. A soon after, another regional summit 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 exhorts African NGOs to resist “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of multilateral bodies. In the following month, a major religious institution hosts a family strengthening conference in an African nation, an event that health activists say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Campaigners note that the extent of foreign involvement has grown significantly.
US Threat to Destroy Contraceptives
As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa report they are running out of contraceptives, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in midsummer plans to destroy a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a European depot. A major reproductive health federation states that their elimination will deprive a huge female population from family planning options, 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 prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “heartless and dangerous”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains unresolved as host nation officials refuse to permit usable products to be destroyed.
Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy
Reviving the global gag rule, which prohibits Washington's support for groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is standard practice for certain US administrations. It came as no surprise when the rule was reinstated in January. The administration also signed onto a conservative consensus document. 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 cover diversity programmes. Further specifics about the policy's widened application are expected in early 2026. A leader in global maternal health says extending the reach will have “unimaginable effects”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that fresh American assistance deals being discussed with African nations will become dependent on agreeing to the broadened restrictions.
