Five Defining Key Moments in the Rollback of the Rights of Females in the Past Year.
A year ago, women’s rights organisations were anticipating a second Trump term. Scarcely anyone expected. The torrent and swiftness of White House mandates emanating from the White House were viewed as a calculated strategy to cause confusion and fear. The tactic proved effective – there was chaos, resentment, and burnout as agencies hastened to compensate for the loss left by a major funding freeze. But the situation was about to worsen.
The Trump administration has been the main instigator, supported by intense advocacy work by religious fundamentalist networks exploiting the situation to forge international alliances with sympathetic regimes.
The anti-rights movement describes a worldwide alliance of government figures, churches, and advocacy collectives as well as affluent financiers and clans that aim to roll back gains in a variety of areas. These include reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.
They achieve this through pressuring states, backing lawsuits, disparaging UN work to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.
We analyze five episodes that affected the safety, dignity and lives of women and girls.
The Dismantling of USAID
In early spring, shortly after a key American development organization is halted, causing international chaos, a leading figure in the administration confirms that the lion's share of the institution's work will be scrapped. Career diplomats, former presidents and humanitarian and health experts denounce the action, cautioning that people will die as a result. Activists say that the closure of the organization is more than a funding crisis, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and family planning and reproductive care. Numerous groups say females will bear the brunt by waning support, especially in war zones. 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 a far greater catastrophe looming. Two other major donor nations follow with their own cuts. A leader of an international advocacy group says a move to cut foreign aid drastically is a move to appease a political ally.
Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference
In the same month, 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 defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in high spirits as they celebrate shifts in US policy on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the gender equality forum with a somber alert that “the poison of patriarchy” is resurgent, after a study indicates that opponents of gender equality are systematically eroding historic agreements on key women’s rights issues around the world.
Summits Promoting Conservative Norms
Over the warmer months, a series of conferences in Africa themed around the conservative family structures and national independence triggers anxiety among rights advocates. In the start of May, a head of state and partner open a major forum to push back on what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A soon after, another Pan-African conference on conservative ethics is held. Both events are attended by leading Western campaigners against gender ideology, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to push back against “international liberal agenda” of international organizations. In June, a global faith group hosts a family strengthening conference in West Africa, an event that reproductive rights advocates say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Advocates remark that the extent of foreign involvement has expanded considerably.
Contraceptive Destruction Order
As medical centers in numerous African countries report they are depleting their stocks of family planning supplies, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in July plans to dispose of a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a warehouse in Europe. A global sexual health network states that their elimination will deprive millions of women and girls from access to birth control, and lead to a public health crisis of unwanted pregnancies. The organization labels the plan an ideological decision “about exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “callous and reckless”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains in deadlock as the regional government will not allow usable products to be destroyed.
Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy
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 was widely expected when the rule was reinstated 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. More details on the policy's widened application are anticipated next year. A expert in child welfare says broadening the policy will have “unimaginable effects”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that new US aid packages being discussed with African nations will become dependent on agreeing to the broadened restrictions.
