Five Key Moments in the Assault on the Rights of Women and Girls in the Past Year.
A year ago, women’s rights organisations were steeling themselves against a return of Donald Trump to office. Hardly anyone anticipated. The torrent and swiftness of executive orders originating in the White House were seen as a deliberate tactic to induce a state of shock. In many ways it worked – there was confusion, anger and exhaustion as organisations scrambled to compensate for the loss left by a major funding freeze. But this merely marked the opening act.
The US administration has been the key driver, bolstered by intense advocacy work by far-right organisations seizing the opportunity to build worldwide connections with political allies.
Often termed the anti-gender movement refers to a global network of elected officials, faith-based bodies, non-governmental organisations as well as ultra-rich backers and donors that work to dismantle advances on numerous fronts. These include reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.
They achieve this through lobbying governments, supporting court cases, discrediting international efforts to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.
We analyze five instances that affected the welfare, autonomy, and survival of girls and women.
USAID Dismantled
In the month of March, six weeks after a major US aid agency is its funds are blocked, causing widespread distress, a leading figure in the administration announces that the lion's share of the organization's initiatives will be axed. American foreign service officers, former presidents and aid and medical specialists condemn the news, predicting that fatalities will ensue. Human rights advocates say that the dismantling of this institution is more than a funding crisis, it is a savage attack on human rights and access to contraception and reproductive health services. Many organisations say females will bear the brunt by diminishing aid, especially in war zones. As the year ends, statistics reveal how hundreds of thousands of people have already died from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with many more millions at risk. Additional key contributing countries follow with their own cuts. A leader of an international advocacy group says a move to cut foreign aid drastically is a gesture of alignment with another government's agenda.
Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference
In the same month, several Christian-right organisations meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a two-day conference held concurrently with the UN's flagship gender equality meeting. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to counter the UN's progressive policies. They are in high spirits as they welcome shifts in US policy on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the women’s summit with a somber alert that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is returning, after a study indicates that groups opposing progressive rights are deliberately weakening longstanding consensus on core aspects of gender equality around the world.
Summits Promoting Conservative Norms
Over the warmer months, a series of conferences in Africa centered on the conventional household and state autonomy triggers anxiety among equality campaigners. In early May, a national leader and spouse open a large assembly to push back on what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A soon after, another continental gathering on family values is held. Both events are participated in by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker urges African NGOs to push back against “radical global social engineering” of global institutions. In June, a prominent church hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in the region, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Advocates remark that the extent of foreign involvement has expanded considerably.
US Threat to Destroy Contraceptives
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 midsummer plans to dispose of a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a European depot. A major reproductive health federation states that their incineration will prevent a huge female population from access to birth control, and lead to a surge in unplanned pregnancies and dangerous terminations. The organization labels the plan an politically-motivated move “about imposing an anti-rights agenda on the entire world” and “a deliberate form of reproductive oppression”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “heartless and dangerous”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains at a standstill as the regional government will not allow 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 provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is commonplace under certain US administrations. It was anticipated when the policy was restored in January. The administration also reaffirmed membership in a pro-life declaration. 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 cover diversity programmes. More details on the policy's widened application are likely forthcoming. A director of a major health partnership says widening the scope will have “catastrophic impacts”. Pro-choice activists fear that new US aid packages being arranged with states on the continent will become contingent upon adopting the broadened restrictions.
