A Quintet of Landmark Occurrences in the Challenge to the Freedoms of Women and Girls in This Past Year.
In the previous year, women’s rights organisations were anticipating a new Trump administration. The ensuing chaos was largely unforeseen. The sheer number and rapid pace of White House mandates originating in the White House were interpreted as a deliberate tactic to paralyze through overload. This strategy had its intended impact – there was chaos, resentment, and burnout as agencies hastened to fill the gap left by a freeze on international development funds. But this merely marked the opening act.
The Trump administration has been the central catalyst, supported by intense advocacy work by deeply conservative factions seizing the opportunity to strengthen global ties with political allies.
Often termed the anti-gender movement denotes an international coalition of government figures, churches, and advocacy collectives as well as billionaire families and individuals that seek to undermine gains in a variety of areas. Areas targeted involve reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.
They pursue this agenda via pressuring states, backing lawsuits, disparaging UN work to advance equality, spreading disinformation, and funding non-profit organisations.
We review five moments that affected the safety, dignity and lives of women and girls.
The Demise of a Major Aid Agency
In March, shortly after a major US aid agency is its funds are blocked, causing global disruption, a top American diplomat announces that nearly all of the institution's work will be scrapped. American foreign service officers, former presidents and aid and medical specialists condemn the news, cautioning that fatalities will ensue. Rights defenders 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. Many organisations say females will bear the brunt by reduced funding, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, evidence indicates how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with millions more to come. Two other major donor nations announce their own austerity measures. A head of a worldwide campaign network says a choice to reduce international development funding is an attempt to placate a powerful partner.
Conservative Religious Groups Lobby at UN Women Meeting
In the same month, several conservative religious groups meet in an luxury Manhattan venue 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 buoyant mood as they welcome shifts in US policy on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the global conference with a grave caution that “the poison of patriarchy” is returning, after a report shows that groups opposing progressive rights are systematically eroding historic agreements on core aspects of gender equality around the world.
Summits Promoting Conservative Norms
Over the summer, a sequence of gatherings in Africa focused on the conventional household and state autonomy triggers anxiety among equality campaigners. In May, a head of state and partner open a significant conference to push back on what they label external influences undermining local norms. A few days later, another Pan-African conference on traditional morals is held. Both events are participated in by leading Western campaigners against gender ideology, including leaders of well-known groups. One speaker urges African NGOs to stand up to “international liberal agenda” of global institutions. In June, a prominent church hosts a family strengthening conference in the region, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Campaigners note that the extent of foreign involvement has increased markedly.
American Plan to Burn Birth Control
As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa report they are depleting their stocks of family planning supplies, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in July plans to incinerate a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a storage facility in Belgium. A global sexual health network states that their destruction will deny 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 dogmatic choice “about exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A international emergency medical charity calls it “heartless and dangerous”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains unresolved as local authorities are blocking usable products to be destroyed.
Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy
Reviving the global gag rule, which cuts American funding for groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is typical of certain US administrations. It was anticipated when the rule was reinstated in January. The administration also signed onto a conservative consensus document. But in October, the US announces it intends to extend the restrictions to include national governments and international bodies in addition to NGOs, and to include DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) projects. More details on the policy's widened application are likely forthcoming. A director of a major health partnership says extending the reach will have “unimaginable effects”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that upcoming Washington funding agreements being discussed with African nations will become contingent upon adopting the expanded global gag.
