🔗 Share this article Five Defining Key Moments in the Erosion of the Freedoms of Women and Girls in 2025. This time last year, organisations advocating for women's rights were preparing for a second Trump term. Scarcely anyone expected. The flood and velocity of executive orders coming out of the White House were viewed as a intentional maneuver to overwhelm and create panic. The tactic proved effective – there was chaos, resentment, and burnout as agencies hastened to plug the hole left by a major funding freeze. But that was just the beginning. The American government has been the key driver, complemented by relentless activism by deeply conservative factions using the moment to forge international alliances with like-minded governments. The movement against gender equality describes a worldwide alliance of political leaders, religious institutions, civil society groups as well as affluent financiers and clans that work to dismantle progress across a wide spectrum of issues. Areas targeted involve 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 look at five junctures that affected the safety, dignity and lives of women and girls. USAID Dismantled In the month of March, shortly after a prominent humanitarian funder is its funds are blocked, causing turmoil around the world, a senior US official confirms that nearly all of the institution's work will be scrapped. Career diplomats, former presidents and relief and public health authorities denounce the action, cautioning that mortality will increase. Rights defenders say that the dismantling of this institution is more than a funding crisis, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and access to contraception and reproductive health services. A multitude of agencies say females will bear the brunt by reduced funding, especially in conflict areas. As the year ends, data shows how a tremendous loss of life has already occurred from disease, starvation, lack of access to maternal care and gender-based violence, with a far greater catastrophe looming. Two other major donor nations initiate similar reductions. A head of a worldwide campaign network 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 March, several Christian-right organisations meet in an high-end hotel in NYC for a biannual gathering held concurrently with the international conference on women's rights. 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 shifts in US policy on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the women’s summit with a grave caution that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is back, after a study indicates that groups opposing progressive rights are actively undermining established norms on key women’s rights issues around the world. Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa Over the warmer months, a sequence of gatherings in Africa themed around the traditional family and national sovereignty sparks alarm among human rights defenders. In early May, a president and first lady open a major forum to resist what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A soon after, another continental gathering on conservative ethics is held. Both events are attended by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including heads of influential networks. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to push back against “radical global social engineering” of multilateral bodies. In June, a global faith group hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in West Africa, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Campaigners note that the scale of their presence has increased markedly. American Plan to Burn Birth Control As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa report they are depleting their stocks of family planning supplies, including emergency kits for survivors of sexual violence, the US announces in midsummer plans to dispose of 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 contraceptive supplies, and lead to a public health crisis of unwanted pregnancies. The organization labels the plan an ideological decision “about imposing an anti-rights agenda on the entire world” and “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains at a standstill as local authorities will not allow the destruction of viable medicines. ‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, which cuts American funding for groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is standard practice for certain US administrations. It was anticipated when the rule was reinstated in January. 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 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 “catastrophic impacts”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that new US aid packages being arranged with states on the continent will become dependent on agreeing to the expanded global gag.
This time last year, organisations advocating for women's rights were preparing for a second Trump term. Scarcely anyone expected. The flood and velocity of executive orders coming out of the White House were viewed as a intentional maneuver to overwhelm and create panic. The tactic proved effective – there was chaos, resentment, and burnout as agencies hastened to plug the hole left by a major funding freeze. But that was just the beginning. The American government has been the key driver, complemented by relentless activism by deeply conservative factions using the moment to forge international alliances with like-minded governments. The movement against gender equality describes a worldwide alliance of political leaders, religious institutions, civil society groups as well as affluent financiers and clans that work to dismantle progress across a wide spectrum of issues. Areas targeted involve 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 look at five junctures that affected the safety, dignity and lives of women and girls. USAID Dismantled In the month of March, shortly after a prominent humanitarian funder is its funds are blocked, causing turmoil around the world, a senior US official confirms that nearly all of the institution's work will be scrapped. Career diplomats, former presidents and relief and public health authorities denounce the action, cautioning that mortality will increase. Rights defenders say that the dismantling of this institution is more than a funding crisis, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and access to contraception and reproductive health services. A multitude of agencies say females will bear the brunt by reduced funding, especially in conflict areas. As the year ends, data shows how a tremendous loss of life has already occurred from disease, starvation, lack of access to maternal care and gender-based violence, with a far greater catastrophe looming. Two other major donor nations initiate similar reductions. A head of a worldwide campaign network 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 March, several Christian-right organisations meet in an high-end hotel in NYC for a biannual gathering held concurrently with the international conference on women's rights. 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 shifts in US policy on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the women’s summit with a grave caution that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is back, after a study indicates that groups opposing progressive rights are actively undermining established norms on key women’s rights issues around the world. Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa Over the warmer months, a sequence of gatherings in Africa themed around the traditional family and national sovereignty sparks alarm among human rights defenders. In early May, a president and first lady open a major forum to resist what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A soon after, another continental gathering on conservative ethics is held. Both events are attended by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including heads of influential networks. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to push back against “radical global social engineering” of multilateral bodies. In June, a global faith group hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in West Africa, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Campaigners note that the scale of their presence has increased markedly. American Plan to Burn Birth Control As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa report they are depleting their stocks of family planning supplies, including emergency kits for survivors of sexual violence, the US announces in midsummer plans to dispose of 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 contraceptive supplies, and lead to a public health crisis of unwanted pregnancies. The organization labels the plan an ideological decision “about imposing an anti-rights agenda on the entire world” and “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains at a standstill as local authorities will not allow the destruction of viable medicines. ‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, which cuts American funding for groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is standard practice for certain US administrations. It was anticipated when the rule was reinstated in January. 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 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 “catastrophic impacts”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that new US aid packages being arranged with states on the continent will become dependent on agreeing to the expanded global gag.