PRI: The future of global women’s rights under Trump? ‘It could be devastating.’
“…Trump’s team wanted details about the U.S. State Department’s spending on gender equality, and names of people whose primary function was to promote gender issues. … Trump has also threatened to end funding for the U.N. and specifically the U.N. Population Fund, which provides contraceptives to tens of thousands of women in Africa and in some of the poorest regions of the globe. … All of this has rattled the tightly knit, yet influential world of women’s rights advocates in Washington, D.C., many of whom worked closely with Hillary Clinton while she was secretary of state and considered her a champion of global women’s issues. Some among these groups accuse the current administration of showing little interest in advancing women’s rights — others fear something worse: a conspiracy-laden, anti-abortion-driven agenda to dismantle decades of work promoting women’s inclusion in national security, access to family planning, and economic empowerment…” (Asquith, 2/9).