Hard-won advances in sexual and reproductive rights are facing renewed political pressure, even as decades of activism have expanded access to abortion, emergency contraception and broader bodily autonomy across many parts of the world.
Progress over the past 30 years has been driven by sustained mobilisation from feminist and reproductive rights and justice advocates. Yet those gains are increasingly being reopened and contested, according to Paola Salwan Daher, Senior Director of Collective Action at Women Deliver. She points to a growing number of political and ideological challenges that are reshaping the debate in multiple regions.
“Some countries are experiencing retrogression under religious influence, including the United States, and the rollback is reverberating well beyond any one jurisdiction,” Paola said.
Her comments come as Women Deliver and its global and regional partners step up consultations for the Feminist Playbook, a collective initiative that will be launched at the Women Deliver 2026 Conference in Narrm, Melbourne, this April. The consultations reflect mounting concern that attacks on reproductive rights rarely remain confined to a single issue or country.
“Attacks on reproductive rights are rarely isolated,” Paola said. “They are increasingly used as an entry point to weaken a broader set of human rights and democratic guarantees, including the rights to health and privacy, freedom from discrimination and equality, and freedom from cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.”
Alongside legal and policy changes, Women Deliver is observing a shift in public narratives that frame women’s, girls’ and gender non-conforming people’s bodies as subject to control rather than autonomy. That framing, Paola warns, has implications that extend far beyond reproductive health.
Developments in the United States have become a reference point for movements elsewhere. Women Deliver notes that the rollback of reproductive rights there is emboldening political actors in other countries. In Slovakia, repeated parliamentary attempts to restrict or ban abortion have intensified, alongside proposed constitutional amendments that weaken existing protections. In Hungary, new measures have introduced additional hurdles for accessing abortion, contraception and family-planning services. At the same time, anti-rights movements are becoming more coordinated across borders, backed by well-resourced networks that organise transnationally.
In response, Women Deliver argues that progressive coalitions and feminist solidarity need to be strengthened across regions and institutions. Shared strategies, accountability mechanisms and collective action are seen as central to protecting existing rights and resisting further erosion.
These concerns are shaping the Feminist Playbook consultations, which aim to support closer collaboration between movements while pressing decision-makers to account for their commitments. Paola describes the Playbook as both a political and practical exercise.
“The Playbook is a collectively devised vision for the world we want to see,” she said. “It will re-centre human rights, States’ accountability, and gender and climate justice as a shared global project. Most importantly, the act of coming together reminds us that we have not been defeated and that we still have agency and collective power.”
She added that the consultation process itself is intended to counter narratives of division and inevitability. “It shows that we are not as divided as we are often told, and that we can still choose to work together. The Playbook will serve as a practical tool and a unifying roadmap toward gender equality, offering shared principles, clear narratives and actionable steps that movements, governments and institutions can use to drive accountability and collective change.”
Reproductive freedom, bodily autonomy, climate justice, democratic backsliding and organised anti-rights movements will feature prominently at Women Deliver 2026, through plenaries, concurrent sessions, side events and pavilions. The conference will also highlight what feminist movements are actively building, including power, strategy, accountability and collective action.
Registrations for Women Deliver 2026 are now open. Further information is available here .
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