Five Defining Crucial Incidents in the Assault on the Freedoms of Women and Girls in the Past Year.
A year ago, feminist advocacy groups were steeling themselves against a second Trump term. Few were prepared for. The sheer number and rapid pace of executive orders originating in the White House were seen as a premeditated approach to paralyze through overload. In many ways it worked – there was bewilderment, fury, and fatigue as networks struggled to plug the hole left by a sudden aid suspension. But this merely marked the opening act.
The Trump administration has been the primary force, bolstered by relentless activism by deeply conservative factions exploiting the situation to strengthen global ties with sympathetic regimes.
The anti-rights movement denotes an international coalition of policymakers, doctrinal establishments, and activist outfits as well as billionaire families and individuals 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 do this by influencing policymakers, funding litigation, undermining global initiatives to advance equality, spreading disinformation, and funding non-profit organisations.
We look at five episodes that impacted the safety, dignity and lives of women and girls.
USAID Effectively Dismantled
In March, six weeks after a prominent humanitarian funder is suspended, causing widespread distress, a senior US official states that nearly all of the organization's initiatives will be axed. American foreign service officers, ex-presidents and relief and public health authorities condemn the news, stating that lives will be lost. Rights defenders say that the dismantling of this institution is more than a funding crisis, it is a savage attack on human rights and family planning and reproductive care. Many organisations say females will bear the brunt by shrinking assistance, especially in war zones. As the year ends, reports confirm 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. Additional key contributing countries announce their own austerity measures. A head of a worldwide campaign network says a choice to reduce international development funding is a gesture of alignment with another government's agenda.
Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference
In March, 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 opportunity to share tactics on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in buoyant mood as they applaud changes in American foreign policy on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the gender equality forum with a somber alert that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is back, after a study indicates that opponents of gender equality are systematically eroding longstanding consensus on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.
African ‘Family Values’ Conferences
Over the summer, a sequence of gatherings in Africa focused on the conservative family structures and national independence raises concerns among rights advocates. In the start of May, a national leader and spouse open a large assembly to combat what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A few days later, another Pan-African conference on conservative ethics is held. Both events are graced by leading Western campaigners against gender ideology, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker urges African NGOs to resist “international liberal agenda” of global institutions. In the following month, a global faith group hosts a event focused on reinforcing families in the region, an event that health activists say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Advocates remark that the extent of foreign involvement has increased markedly.
Contraceptive Destruction Order
As health facilities across Africa report they are running out of contraceptives, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in July plans to incinerate 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 family planning options, and lead to hundreds of thousands of unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions. The organization labels the plan an politically-motivated move “about exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “a deliberate form of reproductive oppression”. A international emergency medical charity calls it “callous and reckless”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can be distributed to those in need, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains unresolved as host nation officials will not allow usable products to be destroyed.
Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy
Reviving the global gag rule, which halts US aid to groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is commonplace under certain US administrations. It came as no surprise when the ban was reimposed in the first month of the year. The administration also reaffirmed membership in a pro-life declaration. But in October, the US announces it intends to expand the global gag rule to include national governments and international bodies in addition to NGOs, and to include DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) projects. More details on the expansion of the rule are anticipated next year. A director of a major health partnership says extending the reach will have “unimaginable effects”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that new US aid packages being discussed with African nations will become contingent upon adopting the expanded global gag.
