Five Defining Landmark Occurrences in the Rollback of the Freedoms of Women and Girls in 2025.

In the previous year, organisations advocating for women's rights were steeling themselves against a return of Donald Trump to office. Hardly anyone anticipated. The volume and speed of presidential directives emanating from the White House were interpreted as a deliberate tactic to induce a state of shock. This strategy had its intended impact – there was bewilderment, fury, and fatigue as agencies hastened to compensate for the loss left by a freeze on international development funds. But that was just the beginning.

The US administration has been the main instigator, aided by relentless activism by far-right organisations using the moment to solidify transnational relationships with ideological partners.

Often termed the anti-gender movement describes a worldwide alliance of government figures, churches, and advocacy collectives as well as billionaire families and individuals that work to dismantle gains in a variety of areas. Areas targeted involve abortion, LGBTQ rights, trans rights, non-traditional family structures and comprehensive sexuality education.

They accomplish their goals by advocating to officials, financing legal challenges, sabotaging multilateral work to push for parity, disseminating propaganda, and supporting ideologically-matched groups.

We review five moments that impacted the protection, honor, and existence of girls and women.

USAID Dismantled

In March, a month and a half following a major US aid agency is its funds are blocked, causing international chaos, a senior US official confirms that a vast majority of the organization's initiatives will be axed. Career diplomats, past leaders and relief and public health authorities decry the decision, warning that lives will be lost. Human rights advocates say that the dismantling of this institution is not just a financial shortfall, it is a savage attack on human rights and access to contraception and reproductive health services. 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, data shows how hundreds of thousands of people have already died from sickness, hunger, poor pregnancy healthcare, and abuse targeting females, with millions more to come. Additional key contributing countries initiate similar reductions. A director of a global justice organization says a choice to reduce international development funding is an attempt to placate a powerful partner.

Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference

In the same month, several Christian-right organisations meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a two-day conference held concurrently with the UN's flagship gender equality meeting. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in optimistic frame of mind as they applaud shifts in US policy on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the gender equality forum with a somber alert that “the venom of male dominance” is resurgent, after a study indicates that opponents of gender equality are actively undermining longstanding consensus on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.

Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa

Over the summer, a series of conferences in Africa focused on the traditional family and national sovereignty raises concerns among rights advocates. In early May, a head of state and partner open a major forum to resist what they label external influences undermining local norms. A soon after, another Pan-African conference on family values is held. Both events are participated in by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including heads of influential networks. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to stand up to “radical global social engineering” of international organizations. In the following month, a global faith group 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 level of external participation has expanded considerably.

US Threat to Destroy Contraceptives

As medical centers in numerous African countries report they are depleting their stocks of family planning supplies, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in midsummer plans to incinerate a vast stockpile of birth control held in a warehouse in Europe. A leading family planning organization states that their destruction will deny a huge female population from access to birth control, and lead to hundreds of thousands of unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions. The organization labels the plan an dogmatic choice “about exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “a deliberate form of reproductive oppression”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “callous and reckless”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can be distributed to those in need, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains at a standstill as the regional government will not allow usable products to be destroyed.

‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded

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 the first month of the year. The administration also signed onto a conservative consensus document. But in October, the US announces it intends to expand the global gag rule to include national governments and international bodies in addition to NGOs, and to cover diversity programmes. Further specifics about the broader enforcement are anticipated next year. A leader in global maternal health says broadening the policy will have “catastrophic impacts”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that new US aid packages being discussed with African nations will become dependent on agreeing to the expanded global gag.