A Quintet of Crucial Incidents in the Attack on the Rights of Females in 2025.

This time last year, organisations advocating for women's rights were anticipating a new Trump administration. Hardly anyone anticipated. The volume and speed of administrative decrees emanating from the White House were interpreted as a deliberate tactic to overwhelm and create panic. To a large extent, it succeeded – there was confusion, anger and exhaustion as groups rushed to compensate for the loss left by a freeze on international development funds. But that was just the beginning.

The American government has been the central catalyst, complemented by vigorous campaigning by ultra-conservative groups capitalizing on the climate to build worldwide connections with like-minded governments.

The anti-rights movement denotes an international coalition of elected officials, faith-based bodies, non-governmental organisations as well as affluent financiers and clans that seek to undermine advances on numerous fronts. These include reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.

They achieve this through pressuring states, backing lawsuits, disparaging UN work to push for parity, disseminating propaganda, and supporting ideologically-matched groups.

We examine five episodes that shaped the safety, dignity and lives of girls and women.

The Dismantling of USAID

In the month of March, six weeks after a key American development organization is suspended, causing turmoil around the world, a senior US official reveals that nearly all of the agency’s programmes will be eliminated. Career diplomats, past leaders and relief and public health authorities decry the decision, predicting that fatalities will ensue. Activists say that the dismantling of this institution is more than a funding crisis, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and birth control and maternal healthcare. Many organisations say the impact on girls and women will be severe by waning support, especially in conflict areas. As the year ends, statistics reveal how a tremendous loss of life has already occurred from disease, starvation, lack of access to maternal care and gender-based violence, with a far greater catastrophe looming. Two other major donor nations initiate similar reductions. A head of a worldwide campaign network says a decision to slash billions in overseas assistance is a move to appease a political ally.

Christian-Right Groups Raise Voices During UN Women Summit

In March, several conservative religious groups meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a biannual gathering 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 optimistic frame of mind as they applaud shifts in US policy on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the women’s summit with a somber alert that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is returning, after a analysis demonstrates that anti-rights actors are deliberately weakening historic agreements on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.

African ‘Family Values’ Conferences

Over the warmer months, a sequence of gatherings in Africa focused on the traditional family and national sovereignty triggers anxiety among rights advocates. In early May, a head of state and partner open a major forum to combat what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A shortly thereafter, another continental gathering on conservative ethics is held. Both events are attended by leading Western campaigners against gender ideology, including heads of influential networks. One speaker calls on African NGOs to push back against “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of international organizations. In the following month, a prominent church hosts a family strengthening conference in the region, an event that reproductive rights advocates say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Activists observe that the extent of foreign involvement has increased markedly.

Contraceptive Destruction Order

As health facilities across Africa report they are facing shortages of birth control, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in midsummer plans to destroy a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a warehouse in Europe. A major reproductive health federation states that their incineration will prevent a huge female population from contraceptive supplies, and lead to a surge in unplanned pregnancies and dangerous terminations. The organization labels the plan an politically-motivated move “about imposing an anti-rights agenda on the entire world” and “a calculated move to control fertility”. A international emergency medical charity calls it “heartless and dangerous”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains unresolved as host nation officials are blocking usable products to be destroyed.

Broader Restrictions on Aid

Reinstating the Mexico City Policy, which prohibits Washington's support for groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is typical of certain US administrations. It was widely expected when the rule was reinstated in January. The administration also signed onto a conservative consensus document. But in October, the US announces it intends to expand the global gag rule to include sovereign states and UN agencies in addition to NGOs, and to cover diversity programmes. Further specifics about the broader enforcement are expected in early 2026. A director of a major health partnership says widening the scope will have “catastrophic impacts”. Pro-choice activists fear that new US aid packages being negotiated with countries in Africa will become conditional on accepting the broadened restrictions.