Five Defining Key Moments in the Rollback of the Freedoms of Women and Girls in the Past Year.
Twelve months prior, organisations advocating for women's rights were steeling themselves against a new Trump administration. Few were prepared for. The torrent and swiftness of presidential directives issued from the White House were seen as a calculated strategy to induce a state of shock. In many ways it worked – there was bewilderment, fury, and fatigue as organisations scrambled to plug the hole left by a major funding freeze. But this merely marked the opening act.
The Washington leadership has been the primary force, complemented by intense advocacy work by far-right organisations capitalizing on the climate to build worldwide connections with ideological partners.
This opposition to progressive rights signifies a transnational grouping of government figures, churches, and advocacy collectives as well as ultra-rich backers and donors that strive to weaken forward movement on multiple topics. This encompasses pro-choice policies, equality for sexual minorities, gender identity recognition, and inclusive relationship teaching.
They do this by influencing policymakers, funding litigation, undermining global initiatives to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.
We review five moments that impacted the safety, dignity and lives of women and girls.
USAID Effectively Dismantled
In March, a month and a half following a major US aid agency is suspended, causing widespread distress, a leading figure in the administration announces that the lion's share of the body's projects will be terminated. American foreign service officers, ex-presidents and aid and medical specialists condemn the news, warning that people will die as a result. Activists say that the closure of the organization is greater than a budgetary issue, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and family planning and reproductive care. Many organisations say the impact on girls and women will be severe 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. Additional key contributing countries proceed with parallel slashes. A head of a worldwide campaign network 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 Christian-right organisations meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a biannual gathering held alongside the annual UN Women gathering. It is an chance to exchange strategies on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in optimistic frame of mind as they welcome changes in American foreign policy on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the gender equality forum with a grave caution that “the venom of male dominance” is resurgent, after a analysis demonstrates that anti-rights actors are deliberately weakening established norms on core aspects of gender equality around the world.
African ‘Family Values’ Conferences
Over the warmer months, a sequence of gatherings in Africa focused on the conventional household and state autonomy sparks alarm among human rights defenders. In the start of May, a president and first lady open a major forum to push back on what they label external influences undermining local norms. A shortly thereafter, another continental gathering on family values is held. Both events are graced by leading American and European conservative activists, including heads of influential networks. One speaker urges African NGOs to push back against “radical global social engineering” of international organizations. In the following month, a global faith group hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in an African nation, an event that health activists say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Advocates remark that the extent of foreign involvement has increased markedly.
US Threat to Destroy Contraceptives
As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa report they are facing shortages of birth control, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in July plans to dispose of millions of dollars worth of contraceptives held in a warehouse in Europe. A major reproductive health federation states that their elimination will deprive millions of women and girls from contraceptive supplies, and lead to a surge in unplanned pregnancies and dangerous terminations. The organization labels the plan an dogmatic choice “about exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “a calculated move to control fertility”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains at a standstill as host nation officials are blocking usable products to be destroyed.
Broader Restrictions on Aid
Reinstating the Mexico City Policy, which halts US aid to groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is typical of certain US administrations. It was widely expected when the policy was restored in January. 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 encompass equity and inclusion initiatives. Further specifics about the broader enforcement are likely forthcoming. A expert in child welfare says broadening the policy will have “catastrophic impacts”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that upcoming Washington funding agreements being arranged with states on the continent will become dependent on agreeing to the broadened restrictions.
