Five Major Landmark Occurrences in the Attack on the Freedoms of Women and Girls in 2025.

A year ago, groups dedicated to gender equality were preparing for a new Trump administration. Hardly anyone anticipated. The volume and speed of administrative decrees coming out of the White House were interpreted as a premeditated approach to paralyze through overload. In many ways it worked – there was chaos, resentment, and burnout as agencies hastened to compensate for the loss left by a sudden aid suspension. But that was just the beginning.

The US administration has been the main instigator, aided by vigorous campaigning by ultra-conservative groups using the moment to solidify transnational relationships with ideological partners.

The anti-rights movement 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 advances on numerous fronts. These include reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.

They pursue this agenda via lobbying governments, supporting court cases, discrediting international efforts to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.

We analyze five moments that shaped the welfare, autonomy, and survival of women and girls.

The Dismantling of USAID

In the month of March, six weeks after a prominent humanitarian funder is halted, causing widespread distress, a senior US official confirms that over eighty percent of the institution's work will be scrapped. American foreign service officers, ex-presidents and relief and public health authorities decry the decision, predicting that mortality will increase. Human rights advocates say that the closure of the organization is more than a funding crisis, it is a savage attack on human rights and access to contraception and reproductive health services. A multitude of agencies say the impact on girls and women will be severe by reduced funding, especially in war zones. As the year ends, statistics reveal how hundreds of thousands of people have already died from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with a far greater catastrophe looming. Another pair of leading funders follow with their own cuts. A leader of an international advocacy group says a decision to slash billions in overseas assistance is a gesture of alignment with another government's agenda.

Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference

In the same month, several faith-based advocacy networks meet in an high-end hotel in NYC for a biannual gathering held concurrently with the international conference on women's rights. It is an forum to discuss methods on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in high spirits as they celebrate shifts in US policy on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the women’s summit with a somber alert that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is back, after a study indicates that groups opposing progressive rights are systematically eroding historic agreements on key women’s rights issues around the world.

African ‘Family Values’ Conferences

Over the summer, a series of conferences in Africa focused on the conservative family structures and national independence triggers anxiety among equality campaigners. In early May, a president and first lady open a large assembly to push back on what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A soon after, another regional summit on traditional morals is held. Both events are graced by leading American and European conservative activists, including leaders of well-known groups. One speaker calls on African NGOs to stand up to “international liberal agenda” of global institutions. In June, a global faith group hosts a family strengthening conference in an African nation, an event that reproductive rights advocates say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Advocates remark that the level of external participation has expanded considerably.

Contraceptive Destruction Order

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 midsummer plans to incinerate a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a storage facility in Belgium. A leading family planning organization states that their destruction will deny millions of women and girls from family planning options, 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 “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A international emergency medical charity calls it “heartless and dangerous”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains unresolved as local authorities will not allow usable products to be destroyed.

Broader Restrictions on Aid

Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, which cuts American funding for groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is commonplace under certain US administrations. It came as no surprise when the policy was restored in January. The administration also rejoined an international anti-abortion agreement. 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 encompass equity and inclusion initiatives. More details on the policy's widened application are expected in early 2026. 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 negotiated with countries in Africa will become contingent upon adopting the broadened restrictions.