Five Pivotal Events in the Attack on the Rights of Women and Girls in 2025.

Twelve months prior, organisations advocating for women's rights were steeling themselves against a second Trump term. The ensuing chaos was largely unforeseen. The flood and velocity of White House mandates issued from the White House were interpreted as a deliberate tactic to cause confusion and fear. In many ways it worked – there was chaos, resentment, and burnout as agencies hastened to compensate for the loss left by a freeze on international development funds. But this merely marked the opening act.

The American government has been the primary force, supported by vigorous campaigning by ultra-conservative groups seizing the opportunity to build worldwide connections with political allies.

Often termed the anti-gender movement refers to a global network of government figures, churches, and advocacy collectives as well as ultra-rich backers and donors that aim to roll back forward movement on multiple topics. This covers access to termination, gay and trans protections, alternative households, and factual sexual instruction.

They accomplish their goals by influencing policymakers, funding litigation, undermining global initiatives to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.

We review five moments that affected the protection, honor, and existence of the female population.

The Dismantling of USAID

In the month of March, a month and a half following a major US aid agency is its funds are blocked, causing turmoil around the world, a senior US official reveals that the lion's share of the institution's work will be scrapped. American foreign service officers, ex-presidents and aid and medical specialists decry the decision, warning that lives will be lost. Rights defenders say that the dismantling of this institution is greater than a budgetary issue, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and birth control and maternal healthcare. A multitude of agencies say the impact on girls and women will be severe by diminishing aid, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, statistics reveal how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from sickness, hunger, poor pregnancy healthcare, and abuse targeting females, with many more millions at risk. Two other major donor nations announce their own austerity measures. A head of a worldwide campaign network says a move to cut foreign aid drastically is a gesture of alignment with another government's agenda.

Christian-Right Groups Raise Voices During UN Women Summit

In the same month, several faith-based advocacy networks meet in an high-end hotel in NYC for a biannual gathering held in parallel with the annual UN Women gathering. It is an forum to discuss methods on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in optimistic frame of mind as they celebrate new Washington directives on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the women’s summit with a grave caution that “the poison of patriarchy” is back, after a report shows that opponents of gender equality are deliberately weakening historic agreements on key women’s rights issues around the world.

Summits Promoting Conservative Norms

Over the warmer months, a cluster of meetings in Africa focused on the conservative family structures and national independence triggers anxiety among rights advocates. In May, a national leader and spouse open a large assembly to combat what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A soon after, another Pan-African conference on traditional morals is held. Both events are participated in by leading Western campaigners against gender ideology, including leaders of well-known groups. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to push back against “radical global social engineering” of international organizations. In the following month, a major religious institution hosts a family strengthening conference in an African nation, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Campaigners note that the scale of their presence has expanded considerably.

American Plan to Burn Birth Control

As health facilities across Africa report they are running out of contraceptives, including emergency kits for survivors of sexual violence, the US announces in midsummer plans to dispose of a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a European depot. A leading family planning organization states that their incineration will prevent millions of women and girls from contraceptive supplies, and lead to a surge in unplanned pregnancies and dangerous terminations. The organization labels the plan an ideological decision “about exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “a deliberate form of reproductive oppression”. A renowned doctors' group calls it “heartless and dangerous”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains in deadlock as local authorities refuse to permit perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.

Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy

Reviving the global gag rule, which halts US aid to groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is commonplace under certain US administrations. It was anticipated when the rule was reinstated in the first month of the year. The administration also rejoined an international anti-abortion agreement. 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 cover diversity programmes. More details on the policy's widened application are expected in early 2026. A director of a major health partnership says widening the scope will have “devastating consequences”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that new US aid packages being arranged with states on the continent will become conditional on accepting the broadened restrictions.