Five Critical Significant Developments in the Challenge to the Freedoms of Women and Girls in This Past Year.

This time last year, groups dedicated to gender equality were preparing for a second Trump term. The ensuing chaos was largely unforeseen. The torrent and swiftness of administrative decrees issued from the White House were seen as a deliberate tactic to cause confusion and fear. The tactic proved effective – there was bewilderment, fury, and fatigue as networks struggled to fill the gap left by a sudden aid suspension. But this was only the precursor.

The Trump administration has been the key driver, complemented by intense advocacy work by ultra-conservative groups exploiting the situation to strengthen global ties with sympathetic regimes.

This opposition to progressive rights describes a worldwide alliance of political leaders, religious institutions, civil society groups as well as billionaire families and individuals that aim to roll back advances on numerous fronts. This covers 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 foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.

We look at five junctures that impacted the welfare, autonomy, and survival of women and girls.

USAID Effectively Dismantled

In March, a month and a half following a prominent humanitarian funder is suspended, causing global disruption, a senior US official reveals that nearly all of the institution's work will be scrapped. Career diplomats, former presidents and aid and medical specialists criticize the move, stating that mortality will increase. Human rights advocates say that the closure of the organization is greater than a budgetary issue, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and birth control and maternal healthcare. A multitude of agencies say the impact on girls and women will be severe by shrinking assistance, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, data shows how hundreds of thousands of people have already died from disease, starvation, lack of access to maternal care and gender-based violence, with millions more to come. Another pair of leading funders proceed with parallel slashes. A leader of an international advocacy group says a decision to slash billions in overseas assistance is a move to appease a political ally.

Christian-Right Groups Raise Voices During UN Women Summit

In March, several Christian-right organisations meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a biannual gathering held in parallel with the annual UN Women gathering. It is an forum to discuss methods on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in buoyant mood as they celebrate new Washington directives on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the gender equality forum with a somber alert that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is returning, after a study indicates that groups opposing progressive rights are actively undermining established norms 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 conservative family structures and national independence sparks alarm among rights advocates. In May, a national leader and spouse open a significant conference to push back on what they label external influences undermining local norms. A shortly thereafter, another Pan-African conference on family values is held. Both events are attended by leading American and European conservative activists, including heads of influential networks. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to push back against “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of international organizations. In the following month, a global faith group hosts a family strengthening conference in an African nation, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Activists observe that the level of external participation has increased markedly.

Contraceptive Destruction Order

As medical centers in numerous African countries report they are depleting their stocks of family planning supplies, including emergency kits for survivors of sexual violence, the US announces in midsummer plans to incinerate a vast stockpile of birth control held in a warehouse in Europe. A global sexual health network states that their elimination will deprive countless females from access to birth control, and lead to a public health crisis of unwanted pregnancies. The organization labels the plan an ideological decision “about forcing a conservative worldview globally” and “a deliberate form of reproductive oppression”. A international emergency medical charity calls it “callous and reckless”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can be distributed to those in need, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains unresolved as local authorities refuse to permit perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.

‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded

Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, which cuts American funding for groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is standard practice for certain US administrations. It came as no surprise when the rule was reinstated in the first month of the year. The administration also signed onto a conservative consensus document. But in the autumn, the US announces it intends to expand the global gag rule to include national governments and international bodies in addition to NGOs, and to cover diversity programmes. Further specifics about the expansion of the rule are anticipated next year. A expert in child welfare says broadening the policy will have “catastrophic impacts”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that new US aid packages being arranged with states on the continent will become contingent upon adopting the broadened restrictions.