Five Major Pivotal Events in the Attack on the Freedoms of Women and Girls in the Year 2025.
In the previous year, feminist advocacy groups were anticipating a new Trump administration. Hardly anyone anticipated. The sheer number and rapid pace of presidential directives emanating from the White House were interpreted as a intentional maneuver to induce a state of shock. The tactic proved effective – there was confusion, anger and exhaustion as groups rushed to fill the gap left by a freeze on international development funds. But this merely marked the opening act.
The US administration has been the main instigator, bolstered by fervent lobbying efforts by deeply conservative factions using the moment to build worldwide connections with political allies.
This opposition to progressive rights signifies a transnational grouping of political leaders, religious institutions, civil society groups as well as billionaire families and individuals that work to dismantle advances on numerous fronts. This covers 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 look at five episodes that influenced the security, respect, and well-being of the female population.
The Demise of a Major Aid Agency
In March, six weeks after a key American development organization is frozen, causing widespread distress, a top American diplomat confirms that the lion's share of the body's projects will be terminated. American foreign service officers, former presidents and relief and public health authorities decry the decision, stating that people will die as a result. Human rights advocates say that the demise of the agency is more than a funding crisis, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and access to contraception and reproductive health services. Many organisations say females will bear the brunt by reduced funding, especially in war zones. As the year ends, evidence indicates how a tremendous loss of life has already occurred from disease, starvation, lack of access to maternal care and gender-based violence, with millions more to come. Another pair of leading funders follow with their own cuts. A director of a global justice organization says a move to cut foreign aid drastically is a gesture of alignment with another government's agenda.
Conservative Religious Groups Lobby at UN Women Meeting
In the same month, several faith-based advocacy networks meet in an high-end hotel in NYC for a two-day conference held in parallel with the UN's flagship gender equality meeting. 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 applaud changes in American foreign policy on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the gender equality forum with a stark warning that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is back, after a report shows that groups opposing progressive rights are systematically eroding longstanding consensus on core aspects of gender equality around the world.
African ‘Family Values’ Conferences
Over the summer, a sequence of gatherings in Africa centered on the conventional household and state autonomy triggers anxiety among human rights defenders. In May, a president and first lady open a major forum to combat what they label external influences undermining local norms. A few days later, another continental gathering on conservative ethics is held. Both events are attended 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 global institutions. In the following month, a prominent church hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in West Africa, an event that health activists say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Advocates remark that the scale of their presence has expanded considerably.
US Threat to Destroy Contraceptives
As medical centers in numerous African countries report they are running out of contraceptives, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in midsummer plans to destroy a vast stockpile of birth control held in a storage facility in Belgium. A leading family planning organization states that their elimination will deprive countless females from contraceptive supplies, and lead to a public health crisis of unwanted pregnancies. The organization labels the plan an politically-motivated move “about forcing a conservative worldview globally” and “a calculated move to control fertility”. A renowned doctors' group calls it “callous and reckless”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains unresolved as the regional government are blocking perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.
Broader Restrictions on Aid
Reinstating the Mexico City Policy, which prohibits Washington's support for groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is commonplace under certain US administrations. It was widely expected when the policy was restored 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 broaden the scope of the policy to include national governments and international bodies in addition to NGOs, and to cover diversity programmes. Additional information regarding the expansion of the rule are likely forthcoming. A leader in global maternal health says widening the scope will have “devastating consequences”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that new US aid packages being discussed with African nations will become dependent on agreeing to the expanded global gag.
