Five Critical Crucial Incidents in the Assault on the Rights of Women and Girls in 2025.

This time last year, organisations advocating for women's rights were preparing for a return of Donald Trump to office. Few were prepared for. The volume and speed of White House mandates issued from the White House were seen as a premeditated approach to induce a state of shock. The tactic proved effective – there was confusion, anger and exhaustion as networks struggled to compensate for the loss left by a major funding freeze. But this merely marked the opening act.

The Trump administration has been the central catalyst, complemented by relentless activism by ultra-conservative groups using the moment to solidify transnational relationships with sympathetic regimes.

The anti-rights movement denotes an international coalition of political leaders, religious institutions, civil society groups as well as affluent financiers and clans that strive to weaken progress across a wide spectrum of issues. Areas targeted involve reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.

They pursue this agenda via pressuring states, backing lawsuits, disparaging UN work to advance equality, spreading disinformation, and funding non-profit organisations.

We examine five junctures that shaped the welfare, autonomy, and survival of women and girls.

USAID Dismantled

In early spring, shortly after a key American development organization is frozen, causing widespread distress, a senior US official reveals that a vast majority of the institution's work will be scrapped. US diplomats, ex-presidents and relief and public health authorities condemn the news, stating that fatalities will ensue. Rights defenders say that the demise of the agency 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, evidence indicates how a tremendous loss of life has already occurred from sickness, hunger, poor pregnancy healthcare, and abuse targeting females, with a far greater catastrophe looming. Two other major donor nations follow with their own cuts. A director of a global justice organization says a choice to reduce international development funding is a move to appease a political ally.

Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference

In the same month, several conservative religious groups meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a two-day conference held alongside 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 buoyant mood as they welcome shifts in US policy on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the gender equality forum with a stark warning that “the venom of male dominance” is resurgent, after a report shows that opponents of gender equality are deliberately weakening established norms on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.

Summits Promoting Conservative Norms

Over the warmer months, a cluster of meetings in Africa themed around the traditional family and national sovereignty triggers anxiety among rights advocates. In May, a national leader and spouse open a large assembly to push back on what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A soon after, another continental gathering on conservative ethics is held. Both events are attended by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including heads of influential networks. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to stand up to “radical global social engineering” of global institutions. In the following month, a prominent church hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in an African nation, an event that health activists say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Advocates remark that the level of external participation has grown significantly.

Contraceptive Destruction Order

As medical centers in numerous African countries report they are running out of contraceptives, including emergency kits for survivors of sexual violence, the US announces in July 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 countless females from contraceptive supplies, and lead to a surge in unplanned pregnancies and dangerous terminations. The organization labels the plan an ideological decision “about exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “a calculated move to control fertility”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “callous and reckless”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains at a standstill as local authorities will not allow perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.

‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded

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 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 governments and multilateral organisations in addition to NGOs, and to cover diversity programmes. Further specifics about the broader enforcement are expected in early 2026. A leader in global maternal health says broadening the policy will have “catastrophic impacts”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that new US aid packages being discussed with African nations will become contingent upon adopting the broadened restrictions.