Five Critical Key Moments in the Attack on the Rights of Women and Girls in the Year 2025.

In the previous year, groups dedicated to gender equality were bracing themselves for a Trump presidency sequel. Hardly anyone anticipated. The volume and speed of White House mandates emanating from the White House were interpreted as a calculated strategy to paralyze through overload. This strategy had its intended impact – there was bewilderment, fury, and fatigue as groups rushed to fill the gap left by a major funding freeze. But this merely marked the opening act.

The US administration has been the central catalyst, aided by fervent lobbying efforts by deeply conservative factions exploiting the situation to build worldwide connections with sympathetic regimes.

The anti-rights movement describes a worldwide alliance of political leaders, religious institutions, civil society groups as well as ultra-rich backers and donors that aim to roll back gains in a variety of areas. Areas targeted involve reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.

They pursue this agenda via advocating to officials, financing legal challenges, sabotaging multilateral work to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.

We examine five instances that affected the safety, dignity and lives of girls and women.

USAID Dismantled

In early spring, six weeks after a key American development organization is frozen, causing turmoil around the world, a leading figure in the administration states that nearly all of the agency’s programmes will be eliminated. US diplomats, former presidents and relief and public health authorities criticize the move, stating that people will die as a result. Activists say that the dismantling of this institution is greater than a budgetary issue, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and access to contraception and reproductive health services. Many organisations say females will bear the brunt by waning support, especially in war zones. As the year ends, statistics reveal how hundreds of thousands of people have already died from sickness, hunger, poor pregnancy healthcare, and abuse targeting females, with millions more to come. Two other major donor nations proceed with parallel slashes. A head of a worldwide campaign network says a move to cut foreign aid drastically is an attempt to placate a powerful partner.

Christian-Right Groups Raise Voices During UN Women Summit

In March, several conservative religious groups meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a two-day conference held alongside the international conference on women's rights. It is an forum to discuss methods on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in high spirits as they celebrate changes in American foreign policy on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the gender equality forum with a somber alert that “the venom of male dominance” is back, after a analysis demonstrates that opponents of gender equality are systematically eroding historic agreements on core aspects of gender equality around the world.

African ‘Family Values’ Conferences

Over the warmer months, a cluster of meetings in Africa focused on the conservative family structures and national independence sparks alarm among human rights defenders. In early May, a president and first lady open a significant conference to combat what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A shortly thereafter, another Pan-African conference on traditional morals is held. Both events are graced by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including leaders of well-known groups. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to resist “international liberal agenda” of global institutions. In June, a major religious institution hosts a event focused on reinforcing families in the region, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Campaigners note that the scale of their presence has expanded considerably.

US Threat to Destroy Contraceptives

As health facilities across Africa report they are facing shortages of birth control, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in July plans to incinerate a vast stockpile of birth control held in a European depot. A global sexual health network states that their destruction will deny countless females from family planning options, and lead to a public health crisis of unwanted pregnancies. The organization labels the plan an ideological decision “about imposing an anti-rights agenda on the entire world” and “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A renowned doctors' group calls it “callous and reckless”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can be distributed to those in need, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains at a standstill as local authorities will not allow perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.

Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy

Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, which cuts American funding for groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is standard practice for certain US administrations. It was anticipated when the ban was reimposed in January. The administration also reaffirmed membership in a pro-life declaration. But in the autumn, 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. More details on the broader enforcement are expected in early 2026. A expert in child welfare says widening the scope will have “unimaginable effects”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that fresh American assistance deals being negotiated with countries in Africa will become contingent upon adopting the expanded global gag.