A Quintet of Pivotal Events in the Challenge to the Freedoms of Women and Girls in This Past Year.
Twelve months prior, feminist advocacy groups were bracing themselves for a return of Donald Trump to office. Scarcely anyone expected. The flood and velocity of administrative decrees originating in the White House were seen as a premeditated approach to paralyze through overload. This strategy had its intended impact – there was confusion, anger and exhaustion as networks struggled to fill the gap left by a abrupt cessation of financial support. But this was only the precursor.
The Washington leadership has been the primary force, supported by intense advocacy work by religious fundamentalist networks seizing the opportunity to forge international alliances with like-minded governments.
The anti-rights movement signifies a transnational grouping of elected officials, faith-based bodies, non-governmental organisations as well as billionaire families and individuals that seek to undermine 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 advocating to officials, financing legal challenges, sabotaging multilateral work to advance equality, spreading disinformation, and funding non-profit organisations.
We analyze five episodes that shaped the protection, honor, and existence of females globally.
USAID Dismantled
In March, a month and a half following a major US aid agency is suspended, causing widespread distress, a leading figure in the administration states that the lion's share of the agency’s programmes will be eliminated. US diplomats, former presidents and aid and medical specialists denounce the action, stating that lives will be lost. Activists say that the dismantling of this institution is more than a funding crisis, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and access to contraception and reproductive health services. Many organisations say females will bear the brunt by waning support, especially in war zones. As the year ends, reports confirm how a tremendous loss of life has already occurred from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with millions more to come. Two other major donor nations initiate similar reductions. 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 annual UN Women gathering. It is an chance to exchange strategies on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in high spirits as they celebrate new Washington directives on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the gender equality forum with a stark warning that “the venom of male dominance” is back, after a study indicates that opponents of gender equality are deliberately weakening historic agreements on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.
African ‘Family Values’ Conferences
Over the warmer months, a series of conferences in Africa themed around the conservative family structures and national independence sparks alarm among equality campaigners. In early May, a national leader and spouse open a large assembly to resist what they label external influences undermining local norms. A few days later, another regional summit on conservative ethics is held. Both events are graced by leading American and European conservative activists, including heads of influential networks. One speaker calls on 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 the region, an event that health activists say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Activists observe that the scale of their presence has expanded considerably.
US Threat to Destroy Contraceptives
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 midsummer plans to destroy a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a warehouse in Europe. A leading family planning organization states that their incineration will prevent countless females from contraceptive supplies, and lead to hundreds of thousands of unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions. The organization labels the plan an dogmatic choice “about exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A renowned doctors' group calls it “heartless and dangerous”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can be distributed to those in need, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains at a standstill as the regional government are blocking usable products to be destroyed.
Broader Restrictions on Aid
Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, which prohibits Washington's support for groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is typical of 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 extend the restrictions to include governments and multilateral organisations in addition to NGOs, and to include DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) projects. More details on the policy's widened application are anticipated next year. A director of a major health partnership says extending the reach will have “unimaginable effects”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that fresh American assistance deals being discussed with African nations will become dependent on agreeing to the new, wider policy.