A Quintet of Key Moments in the Erosion of the Rights of Women and Girls in the Year 2025.

Twelve months prior, groups dedicated to gender equality were bracing themselves for a second Trump term. Scarcely anyone expected. The volume and speed of White House mandates originating in the White House were seen as a deliberate tactic to paralyze through overload. The tactic proved effective – there was bewilderment, fury, and fatigue as agencies hastened to address the shortfall left by a freeze on international development funds. But the situation was about to worsen.

The US administration has been the primary force, bolstered by vigorous campaigning by religious fundamentalist networks exploiting the situation to build worldwide connections with political allies.

The anti-rights movement describes a worldwide alliance of policymakers, doctrinal establishments, and activist outfits as well as ultra-rich backers and donors that seek to undermine advances on numerous fronts. This covers reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.

They accomplish their goals by lobbying governments, supporting court cases, discrediting international efforts to promote fairness, circulating falsehoods, and resourcing aligned NGOs.

We review five instances that shaped the welfare, autonomy, and survival of women and girls.

USAID Effectively Dismantled

In early spring, six weeks after a major US aid agency is frozen, causing global disruption, a leading figure in the administration confirms that over eighty percent of the body's projects will be terminated. American foreign service officers, former presidents and relief and public health authorities denounce the action, cautioning that people will die as a result. Human rights advocates say that the closure of the organization is not just a financial shortfall, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and family planning and reproductive care. Numerous groups say females will bear the brunt by reduced funding, especially in war zones. As the year ends, data shows how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with millions more to come. Another pair of leading funders follow with their own cuts. A leader of an international advocacy group says a decision to slash billions in overseas assistance is a gesture of alignment with another government's agenda.

Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference

In March, several Christian-right organisations meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a two-day conference held alongside the annual UN Women gathering. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in high spirits as they celebrate changes in American foreign policy on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the gender equality forum with a grave caution that “the venom of male dominance” is returning, after a analysis demonstrates that opponents of gender equality are actively undermining longstanding consensus on key women’s rights issues around the world.

Summits Promoting Conservative Norms

Over the warmer months, a sequence of gatherings in Africa focused on the conventional household and state autonomy raises concerns among rights advocates. In the start of May, a president and first lady open a significant conference to combat what they label external influences undermining local norms. A soon after, another Pan-African conference on family values is held. Both events are attended by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker calls on African NGOs to push back against “radical global social engineering” of international organizations. In June, a prominent church hosts a event focused on reinforcing families in an African nation, an event that reproductive rights advocates say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Campaigners note that the extent of foreign involvement 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 destroy millions of dollars worth of contraceptives held in a storage facility in Belgium. A leading family planning organization states that their destruction will deny millions of women and girls 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 exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A renowned doctors' group calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can be distributed to those in need, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains at a standstill as local authorities are blocking usable products to be destroyed.

Broader Restrictions on Aid

Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, which prohibits Washington's support for groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is typical of certain US administrations. It came as no surprise when the policy was restored in the first month of the year. The administration also signed onto a conservative consensus document. But in the autumn, 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. Additional information regarding the broader enforcement are expected in early 2026. A director of a major health partnership says extending the reach will have “devastating consequences”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that upcoming Washington funding agreements being discussed with African nations will become conditional on accepting the expanded global gag.