Five Significant Developments in the Assault on the Rights of Women and Girls in 2025.

This time last year, organisations advocating for women's rights were anticipating a Trump presidency sequel. Few were prepared for. The volume and speed of executive orders originating in the White House were seen as a premeditated approach to paralyze through overload. The tactic proved effective – there was bewilderment, fury, and fatigue as groups rushed to address the shortfall left by a major funding freeze. But that was just the beginning.

The Trump administration has been the main instigator, supported by vigorous campaigning by deeply conservative factions seizing the opportunity to strengthen global ties with sympathetic regimes.

The anti-rights movement describes a worldwide alliance of political leaders, religious institutions, civil society groups as well as affluent financiers and clans that work to dismantle advances on numerous fronts. These include access to termination, gay and trans protections, alternative households, and factual sexual instruction.

They do this by pressuring states, backing lawsuits, disparaging UN work to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.

We examine five episodes that affected the security, respect, and well-being of girls and women.

USAID Effectively Dismantled

In March, shortly after a prominent humanitarian funder is its funds are blocked, causing international chaos, a top American diplomat reveals that over eighty percent of the body's projects will be terminated. US diplomats, ex-presidents and relief and public health authorities condemn the news, stating that lives will be lost. Activists say that the demise of the agency is more than a funding crisis, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and birth control and maternal healthcare. A multitude of agencies say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by diminishing aid, especially in regions of instability. 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 many more millions at risk. Two other major donor nations announce their own austerity measures. A head of a worldwide campaign network says a decision to slash billions in overseas assistance is an attempt to placate a powerful partner.

Christian-Right Groups Raise Voices During UN Women Summit

In March, several Christian-right organisations meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a two-day conference held alongside the UN's flagship gender equality meeting. It is an chance to exchange strategies on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in buoyant mood as they applaud changes in American foreign policy on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the gender equality forum with a grave caution that “the poison of patriarchy” is back, after a analysis demonstrates that groups opposing progressive rights are systematically eroding established norms on key women’s rights issues around the world.

African ‘Family Values’ Conferences

Over the summer, a sequence of gatherings in Africa focused on the traditional family and national sovereignty triggers anxiety among equality campaigners. In early May, a national leader and spouse open a significant conference to combat what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A few days later, another Pan-African conference on conservative ethics is held. Both events are graced by leading Western campaigners against gender ideology, including leaders of well-known groups. One speaker urges African NGOs to push back against “radical global social engineering” of multilateral bodies. In June, a major religious institution hosts a event focused on reinforcing families in West Africa, an event that health activists say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Activists observe that the level of external participation has expanded considerably.

American Plan to Burn Birth Control

As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa report they are depleting their stocks of family planning supplies, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in July plans to dispose of a vast stockpile of birth control held in a warehouse in Europe. A global sexual health network states that their incineration will prevent millions of women and girls from contraceptive supplies, 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 calculated move to control fertility”. A international emergency medical charity calls it “callous and reckless”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains in deadlock as host nation officials refuse to permit perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.

Broader Restrictions on Aid

Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, which halts US aid to groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is standard practice for certain US administrations. It was anticipated when the rule was reinstated 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 national governments and international bodies in addition to NGOs, and to include DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) projects. Further specifics about the broader enforcement are likely forthcoming. A director of a major health partnership says extending the reach will have “unimaginable effects”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that upcoming Washington funding agreements being negotiated with countries in Africa will become contingent upon adopting the new, wider policy.