Five Defining Significant Developments in the Erosion of the Freedoms of Women and Girls in This Past Year.

This time last year, organisations advocating for women's rights were preparing for a new Trump administration. Scarcely anyone expected. The flood and velocity of administrative decrees emanating from the White House were viewed as a deliberate tactic to overwhelm and create panic. 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 American government has been the central catalyst, supported by fervent lobbying efforts by ultra-conservative groups using the moment to forge international alliances with ideological partners.

This opposition to progressive rights signifies a transnational grouping of political leaders, religious institutions, civil society groups as well as ultra-rich backers and donors that seek to undermine forward movement on multiple topics. Areas targeted involve access to termination, gay and trans protections, alternative households, and factual sexual instruction.

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

We look at five moments that influenced the protection, honor, and existence of women and girls.

USAID Dismantled

In the month of March, six weeks after a prominent humanitarian funder is its funds are blocked, causing widespread distress, a top American diplomat reveals that over eighty percent of the body's projects will be terminated. US diplomats, ex-presidents and aid and medical specialists denounce the action, stating that fatalities will ensue. Activists say that the closure of the organization is not just a financial shortfall, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and access to contraception and reproductive health services. Numerous groups say females will bear the brunt by waning support, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, reports confirm how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from sickness, hunger, poor pregnancy healthcare, and abuse targeting females, with a far greater catastrophe looming. Another pair of leading funders follow with their own cuts. A leader of an international advocacy group says a decision to slash billions in overseas assistance is a gesture of alignment with another government's agenda.

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 concurrently with the annual UN Women gathering. It is an forum to discuss methods on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in high spirits as they applaud new Washington directives on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the women’s summit with a stark warning that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is resurgent, after a analysis demonstrates that anti-rights actors are deliberately weakening longstanding consensus on key women’s rights issues around the world.

Summits Promoting Conservative Norms

Over the summer, a series of conferences in Africa centered on the traditional family and national sovereignty triggers anxiety among equality campaigners. In early May, a president and first lady open a large assembly to combat what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A shortly thereafter, another regional summit on traditional morals is held. Both events are participated in by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker calls on African NGOs to push back against “international liberal agenda” of global institutions. In June, a global faith group hosts a family strengthening conference in an African nation, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Advocates remark that the scale of their presence has grown significantly.

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 midsummer plans to dispose of 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 access to birth control, and lead to a surge in unplanned pregnancies and dangerous terminations. The organization labels the plan an ideological decision “about imposing an anti-rights agenda on the entire world” and “a deliberate form of reproductive oppression”. A international emergency medical charity calls it “heartless and dangerous”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains at a standstill as local authorities are blocking usable products to be destroyed.

Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy

Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, which halts US aid to groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is typical of certain US administrations. It was widely expected 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 broaden the scope of the policy to include sovereign states and UN agencies in addition to NGOs, and to include DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) projects. Additional information regarding the broader enforcement are likely forthcoming. A expert in child welfare says broadening the policy will have “devastating consequences”. Pro-choice activists fear that new US aid packages being arranged with states on the continent will become dependent on agreeing to the new, wider policy.