Five Pivotal Events in the Erosion of the Rights of Females in This Past Year.

This time last year, feminist advocacy groups were preparing for a new Trump administration. The ensuing chaos was largely unforeseen. The volume and speed of executive orders originating in the White House were seen as a intentional maneuver to overwhelm and create panic. This strategy had its intended impact – there was bewilderment, fury, and fatigue as agencies hastened to fill the gap left by a abrupt cessation of financial support. But this was only the precursor.

The American government has been the primary force, aided by relentless activism by ultra-conservative groups seizing the opportunity to solidify transnational relationships with sympathetic regimes.

Often termed the anti-gender movement refers to a global network of government figures, churches, and advocacy collectives as well as affluent financiers and clans that work to dismantle advances on numerous fronts. Areas targeted involve abortion, LGBTQ rights, trans rights, non-traditional family structures and comprehensive sexuality education.

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

We analyze five episodes that impacted the safety, dignity and lives of women and girls.

USAID Dismantled

In March, a month and a half following a key American development organization is its funds are blocked, causing international chaos, a leading figure in the administration confirms that over eighty percent of the organization's initiatives will be axed. Career diplomats, ex-presidents and relief and public health authorities criticize the move, predicting that people will die as a result. Rights defenders say that the closure of the organization is greater than a budgetary issue, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and birth control and maternal healthcare. Many organisations say females will bear the brunt by waning support, especially in conflict areas. As the year ends, reports confirm how a significant mortality toll has been exacted 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 director of a global justice organization says a move to cut foreign aid drastically is a move to appease a political ally.

Conservative Religious Groups Lobby at UN Women Meeting

In March, several conservative religious groups meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a biannual gathering held alongside the UN's flagship gender equality meeting. It is an chance to exchange strategies on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in buoyant mood as they applaud new Washington directives on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the gender equality forum with a stark warning that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is resurgent, after a analysis demonstrates that anti-rights actors are deliberately weakening historic agreements on key women’s rights issues around the world.

Summits Promoting Conservative Norms

Over the summer, a sequence of gatherings in Africa focused on the conservative family structures and national independence sparks alarm among rights advocates. In early May, a president and first lady open a major forum to push back on what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A shortly thereafter, another continental gathering on conservative ethics is held. Both events are attended by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker urges African NGOs to push back against “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of international organizations. In the following month, a prominent church hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in the region, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Advocates remark that the scale of their presence has increased markedly.

American Plan to Burn Birth Control

As medical centers in numerous African countries report they are facing shortages of birth control, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in July plans to destroy a vast stockpile of birth control held in a storage facility in Belgium. A leading family planning organization states that their incineration will prevent countless females from family planning options, and lead to a surge in unplanned pregnancies and dangerous terminations. The organization labels the plan an dogmatic choice “about imposing an anti-rights agenda on the entire world” 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 be distributed to those in need, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains at a standstill as local authorities refuse to permit the destruction of viable medicines.

Broader Restrictions on Aid

Reinstating the Mexico City Policy, which prohibits Washington's support 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 rule was reinstated in the first month of the year. The administration also reaffirmed membership in a pro-life declaration. But in the autumn, 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. More details on the broader enforcement are expected in early 2026. A leader in global maternal health says extending the reach will have “unimaginable effects”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that new US aid packages being discussed with African nations will become conditional on accepting the expanded global gag.