Five Key Moments in the Rollback of the Rights of Females in the Past Year.
This time last year, women’s rights organisations were preparing for a second Trump term. Few were prepared for. The sheer number and rapid pace of presidential directives emanating from the White House were viewed as a intentional maneuver to paralyze through overload. To a large extent, it succeeded – there was bewilderment, fury, and fatigue as agencies hastened to compensate for the loss left by a sudden aid suspension. But the situation was about to worsen.
The Trump administration has been the key driver, supported by fervent lobbying efforts by religious fundamentalist networks seizing the opportunity to strengthen global ties with like-minded governments.
This opposition to progressive rights signifies a transnational grouping of policymakers, doctrinal establishments, and activist outfits as well as affluent financiers and clans that aim to roll back advances on numerous fronts. This covers abortion, LGBTQ rights, trans rights, non-traditional family structures and comprehensive sexuality education.
They do this by lobbying governments, supporting court cases, discrediting international efforts to promote fairness, circulating falsehoods, and resourcing aligned NGOs.
We look at five episodes that influenced the safety, dignity and lives of women and girls.
The Demise of a Major Aid Agency
In early spring, a month and a half following a major US aid agency is frozen, causing turmoil around the world, a senior US official announces that a vast majority of the agency’s programmes will be eliminated. American foreign service officers, past leaders and humanitarian and health experts decry the decision, stating that fatalities will ensue. Activists say that the dismantling of this institution is greater than a budgetary issue, it is a savage attack on human rights and birth control and maternal healthcare. Numerous groups say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by shrinking assistance, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, evidence indicates how a tremendous loss of life has already occurred from sickness, hunger, poor pregnancy healthcare, and abuse targeting females, with a far greater catastrophe looming. Two other major donor nations follow with their own cuts. A leader of an international advocacy group says a move to cut foreign aid drastically is an attempt to placate a powerful partner.
Christian-Right Groups Raise Voices During UN Women Summit
In the same month, several conservative religious groups meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a strategic summit held alongside the UN's flagship gender equality meeting. It is an forum to discuss methods on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in optimistic frame of mind as they celebrate changes in American foreign policy on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the global conference with a stark warning that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is back, after a report shows that opponents of gender equality are actively undermining longstanding consensus on core aspects of gender equality around the world.
African ‘Family Values’ Conferences
Over the warmer months, a series of conferences in Africa focused on the conservative family structures and national independence raises concerns among rights advocates. In the start of May, a national leader and spouse open a major forum to push back on what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A few days later, another continental gathering on family values is held. Both events are graced by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to push back against “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of international organizations. In June, a prominent church hosts a event focused on reinforcing families in the region, an event that reproductive rights advocates say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Advocates remark that the scale of their presence has increased markedly.
US Threat to Destroy Contraceptives
As health facilities across Africa report they are facing shortages of birth control, 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 warehouse in Europe. A global sexual health network states that their incineration will prevent millions of women and girls from family planning options, and lead to a surge in unplanned pregnancies and dangerous terminations. The organization labels the plan an dogmatic choice “about imposing an anti-rights agenda on the entire world” and “a deliberate form of reproductive oppression”. A renowned doctors' group calls it “callous and reckless”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains unresolved as the regional government will not allow perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.
Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy
Reinstating the Mexico City Policy, which cuts American funding for groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is commonplace under certain US administrations. It was widely expected when the ban was reimposed in January. The administration also reaffirmed membership in a pro-life declaration. But in October, the US announces it intends to broaden the scope of the policy to include governments and multilateral organisations in addition to NGOs, and to include DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) projects. More details on the expansion of the rule are expected in early 2026. A leader in global maternal health says widening the scope will have “devastating consequences”. Pro-choice activists fear that new US aid packages being arranged with states on the continent will become contingent upon adopting the expanded global gag.
