Five Significant Developments in the Attack on the Freedoms of Women and Girls in 2025.

A year ago, feminist advocacy groups were anticipating a new Trump administration. Scarcely anyone expected. The flood and velocity of administrative decrees originating in the White House were regarded as a premeditated approach to induce a state of shock. To a large extent, it succeeded – there was chaos, resentment, and burnout as agencies hastened to compensate for the loss left by a abrupt cessation of financial support. But the situation was about to worsen.

The Washington leadership has been the primary force, aided by fervent lobbying efforts by far-right organisations using the moment to forge international alliances with sympathetic regimes.

This opposition to progressive rights refers to a global network of political leaders, religious institutions, civil society groups as well as billionaire families and individuals that aim to roll back forward movement on multiple topics. These include pro-choice policies, equality for sexual minorities, gender identity recognition, and inclusive relationship teaching.

They do this by influencing policymakers, funding litigation, undermining global initiatives to push for parity, disseminating propaganda, and supporting ideologically-matched groups.

We analyze five moments that impacted the protection, honor, and existence of girls and women.

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 top American diplomat states that a vast majority of the institution's work will be scrapped. American foreign service officers, past leaders and humanitarian and health experts decry the decision, warning that fatalities will ensue. Rights defenders say that the dismantling of this institution is not just a financial shortfall, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and family planning and reproductive care. Numerous groups say the impact on girls and women will be severe by shrinking assistance, especially in war zones. As the year ends, reports confirm 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. Two other major donor nations proceed with parallel slashes. A director of a global justice organization says a move to cut foreign aid drastically is an attempt to placate a powerful partner.

Conservative Religious Groups Lobby at UN Women Meeting

In March, several Christian-right organisations meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a two-day conference held in parallel with the annual UN Women gathering. It is an chance to exchange strategies on how to counter the UN's progressive policies. They are in buoyant mood as they applaud new Washington directives on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the women’s summit with a somber alert that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is returning, 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 series of conferences in Africa focused on the traditional family and national sovereignty raises concerns among human rights defenders. In early May, a head of state and partner open a large assembly to combat what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A few days later, another continental gathering on traditional morals is held. Both events are participated in by leading American and European conservative activists, including leaders of well-known groups. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to stand up to “international liberal agenda” of multilateral bodies. In June, a global faith group hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in the region, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Activists observe that the scale of their presence has grown significantly.

Contraceptive Destruction Order

As health facilities across Africa report they are depleting their stocks of family planning supplies, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in July plans to destroy a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a storage facility in Belgium. A leading family planning organization states that their elimination will deprive millions of women and girls from family planning options, and lead to a public health crisis of unwanted pregnancies. The organization labels the plan an dogmatic choice “about forcing a conservative worldview globally” and “a deliberate form of reproductive oppression”. A renowned doctors' group calls it “callous and reckless”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains in deadlock as local authorities refuse to permit perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.

Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy

Reinstating the Mexico City Policy, which cuts American funding for groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is commonplace under certain US administrations. It was widely expected when the rule was reinstated in the first month of the year. The administration also signed onto a conservative consensus document. But in October, the US announces it intends to extend the restrictions to include sovereign states and UN agencies in addition to NGOs, and to include DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) projects. Further specifics about the policy's widened application are likely forthcoming. A director of a major health partnership says widening the scope will have “unimaginable effects”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that new US aid packages being discussed with African nations will become dependent on agreeing to the expanded global gag.