Five Major Significant Developments in the Erosion of the Rights of Females in 2025.

Twelve months prior, groups dedicated to gender equality were preparing for a second Trump term. Scarcely anyone expected. The volume and speed of executive orders issued from the White House were seen as a intentional maneuver to paralyze through overload. In many ways it worked – there was confusion, anger and exhaustion as groups rushed to address the shortfall left by a freeze on international development funds. But this was only the precursor.

The Washington leadership has been the main instigator, aided by intense advocacy work by deeply conservative factions exploiting the situation to solidify transnational relationships with political allies.

This opposition to progressive rights denotes an international coalition of elected officials, faith-based bodies, non-governmental organisations as well as billionaire families and individuals that seek to undermine gains in a variety of areas. Areas targeted involve reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.

They do this by advocating to officials, financing legal challenges, sabotaging multilateral work to promote fairness, circulating falsehoods, and resourcing aligned NGOs.

We review five instances that influenced the safety, dignity and lives of girls and women.

USAID Dismantled

In March, a month and a half following a key American development organization is suspended, causing global disruption, a top American diplomat announces that over eighty percent of the agency’s programmes will be eliminated. American foreign service officers, ex-presidents and relief and public health authorities denounce the action, warning that mortality will increase. Rights defenders say that the dismantling of this institution is not just a financial shortfall, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and birth control and maternal healthcare. Many organisations say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by diminishing aid, especially in conflict areas. As the year ends, data shows 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 proceed with parallel slashes. A leader of an international advocacy group says a choice to reduce international development funding is a move to appease a political ally.

Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference

In March, several Christian-right organisations meet in an high-end hotel in NYC for a strategic summit held concurrently with the annual UN Women gathering. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to counter the UN's progressive policies. They are in optimistic frame of mind as they welcome shifts in US policy on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the women’s summit with a stark warning that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is resurgent, after a study indicates that opponents of gender equality are deliberately weakening historic agreements on core aspects of gender equality around the world.

Summits Promoting Conservative Norms

Over the summer, a sequence of gatherings in Africa centered on the conventional household and state autonomy triggers anxiety among rights advocates. In May, a national leader and spouse open a major forum 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 US and European anti-rights figures, including leaders of well-known groups. One speaker calls on African NGOs to push back against “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of multilateral bodies. In June, a prominent church hosts a family strengthening conference in West Africa, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Campaigners note that the level of external participation has grown significantly.

American Plan to Burn Birth Control

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 millions of dollars worth of contraceptives held in a warehouse in Europe. A global sexual health network states that their destruction will deny countless females from access to birth control, and lead to a surge in unplanned pregnancies and dangerous terminations. The organization labels the plan an politically-motivated move “about forcing a conservative worldview globally” and “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains at a standstill as local authorities are blocking usable products to be destroyed.

‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded

Reviving the global gag rule, which cuts American funding for groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is standard practice for certain US administrations. It came as no surprise when the ban was reimposed in the first month of the year. The administration also rejoined an international anti-abortion agreement. But in October, the US announces it intends to broaden the scope of the policy to include governments and multilateral organisations in addition to NGOs, and to cover diversity programmes. Further specifics about the expansion of the rule are likely forthcoming. 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 arranged with states on the continent will become contingent upon adopting the new, wider policy.