Five Defining Landmark Occurrences in the Rollback of the Rights of Females in This Past Year.
Twelve months prior, women’s rights organisations were bracing themselves for a return of Donald Trump to office. The ensuing chaos was largely unforeseen. The torrent and swiftness of executive orders emanating from the White House were viewed as a deliberate tactic to paralyze through overload. To a large extent, it succeeded – there was confusion, anger and exhaustion as agencies hastened to address the shortfall left by a major funding freeze. But this was only the precursor.
The Trump administration has been the central catalyst, supported by fervent lobbying efforts by far-right organisations using the moment to strengthen global ties with ideological partners.
The anti-rights movement denotes an international coalition of elected officials, faith-based bodies, non-governmental organisations as well as billionaire families and individuals that seek to undermine advances on numerous fronts. This covers abortion, LGBTQ rights, trans rights, non-traditional family structures and comprehensive sexuality education.
They do this by advocating to officials, financing legal challenges, sabotaging multilateral work to advance equality, spreading disinformation, and funding non-profit organisations.
We analyze five episodes that affected the welfare, autonomy, and survival of women and girls.
The Demise of a Major Aid Agency
In the month of March, six weeks after a prominent humanitarian funder is suspended, causing international chaos, a senior US official confirms that over eighty percent of the agency’s programmes will be eliminated. Career diplomats, past leaders and humanitarian and health experts condemn the news, cautioning that mortality will increase. Human rights advocates say that the closure of the organization is greater than a budgetary issue, it is a savage attack on human rights and birth control and maternal healthcare. A multitude of agencies say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by shrinking assistance, especially in war zones. As the year ends, evidence indicates how hundreds of thousands of people have already died from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with many more millions at risk. Another pair of leading funders proceed with parallel slashes. A leader of an international advocacy group 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 two-day conference held alongside the international conference on women's rights. It is an chance to exchange strategies on how to counter the UN's progressive policies. They are in optimistic frame of mind as they applaud new Washington directives on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the women’s summit with a somber alert that “the venom of male dominance” is resurgent, after a report shows that opponents of gender equality are deliberately weakening historic agreements on key women’s rights issues 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 rights advocates. In May, a head of state and partner open a significant conference 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 participated in by leading American and European conservative activists, including heads of influential networks. One speaker calls on African NGOs to resist “international liberal agenda” of international organizations. In the following month, a prominent church hosts a event focused on reinforcing families in the region, an event that health activists say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Campaigners note that the extent of foreign involvement has increased markedly.
US Threat to Destroy Contraceptives
As health facilities across Africa report they are facing shortages of birth control, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in midsummer plans to dispose of a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a European depot. A global sexual health network states that their incineration will prevent 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 ideological decision “about imposing an anti-rights agenda on the entire world” and “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A international emergency medical charity calls it “callous and reckless”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains at a standstill as local authorities are blocking usable products to be destroyed.
Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy
Reviving the global gag rule, which prohibits Washington's support for groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is typical of certain US administrations. It was widely expected when the rule was reinstated in the first month of the year. The administration also reaffirmed membership in a pro-life declaration. But in October, the US announces it intends to expand the global gag rule to include sovereign states and UN agencies in addition to NGOs, and to include DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) projects. Further specifics about the broader enforcement are expected in early 2026. A expert in child welfare says widening the scope will have “unimaginable effects”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that fresh American assistance deals being negotiated with countries in Africa will become conditional on accepting the expanded global gag.
