The Power of Us: Fueling the Movement with Evidence-Based Hope for 2026
16th January 2026
We are under no illusions about the news headlines or the context surrounding us as 2026 begins. The global landscape for bodily autonomy remains fraught.
The Global Gag Rule, reinstated last year, continues to deny women and girls access to life-saving healthcare, while growing uncertainty surrounds the ‘America First Global Health Strategy’ and its opaque government-to-government compact deals. Coupled with the withdrawal from key UN bodies, treaties, and international organisations, these executive actions mark a paradigm shift in multilateralism – one that threatens to dismantle years of hard-won progress. This occurs against a backdrop of protracted wars, humanitarian crises and state repression that compound fear, deep uncertainty and disillusionment, entrenching cycles of violence, exclusion, and impunity.
In this context sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) are deliberately targeted by an emboldened, well-funded anti-rights movement seeking to exploit weakened institutions and political fragmentation to roll back rights. Even in this moment of profound challenge, SheDecides remains steadfast in its mission: to ensure that every woman, girl, and young person, in all their diversity, can make decisions about their bodies, lives, and futures – without question.
SheDecides attends the Feminist Foreign Policy Forum in France, pictured with AWID, FEMNET and SheDecides Champion Jean-Noël Barrot, French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs.
Resisting the Rollback: Lessons from 2025
Now there is another story to tell too. Reflecting on 2025, we saw the pro-choice community rise to meet this unprecedented assault. As regressive policies resurfaced and official development assistance (ODA) budgets were cut, SheDecides and its Champions worked tirelessly to resist the rollback on the right to decide.
Central to this resistance was our focus on partnership. By bringing on Champions like Amnesty International, a global leader in human rights, and ILGA World, our first LGBTQI+ Champion, we are building a more inclusive front for bodily autonomy. This collective power is what we carry into 2026 – meeting global uncertainty with clear-eyed determination and an unwavering belief in the right to decide. When the opposition coordinates to erode our freedoms, we respond with a partnership-led resistance that is just as organised and even more determined.
Looking to 2026: Strategic Moments for Shared Action
The calendar for 2026 offers many moments for this shared action to take center stage. SheDecides will leverage global forums – including CSW, CPD, Women Deliver, WHA, the World Health Summit, and UNGA – to coordinate political action and amplify progress.
In these spaces, we will offer hope and hold the line on reproductive rights against pushback, ensuring the right to decide remains a political priority while defending global solidarity and multilateralism.
A Spotlight on Progress
Despite the intense headwinds, it is essential that we document and celebrate progress. Legislative and cultural wins are being achieved in every corner of the world, from high-court rulings in Malawi affirming abortion access for victims of sexual violence to Rwanda’s historic decision to grant adolescents access to SRH services without third-party consent. Nepal, too, has seen transformative change; in response to a strategic lawsuit filed by the Center and the Forum for Women, Law, and Development, the government enacted new guidelines that reform policy and expand service access for adolescents nationwide.
In the Netherlands, we saw Rutgers take on anti-rights actors seeking to roll back Comprehensive Sexuality Education – and win. This landmark victory ensures that young people continue to have the science-based information they need to lead healthy, informed lives. In the UK, following a hard-fought campaign by MSI and partners, MPs voted to decriminalise abortion in England and Wales. This progress was underpinned by vital data and evidence, such as Guttmacher’s ‘Adding It Up‘ report, which serves the movement as a cornerstone for advocacy.
Despite significant pushback, many governments remained vocal champions of SRHR on the international stage. Norway, in particular, served as a steadfast global voice, increasing its investment in SRHR and fiercely defending abortion rights and bodily autonomy.
This momentum was further solidified with policy moments like the Fourth Ministerial Conference on feminist foreign policy hosted by France and the International Conference on Family Planning hosted by Colombia. These global forums demonstrated that forward-looking governments are not just protecting SRHR – they are placing it at the very heart of their national and diplomatic agendas, recognising it as a fundamental pillar of development and security.
And 2025 closed celebrating the remarkable success of the “My Voice, My Choice” initiative. This massive act of civic mobilisation gathered over 1.1 million signatures, leading the European Parliament to back a landmark financial mechanism to ensure safe abortion access across the EU.
Abortion Archives – Fueling our political imagination
We take heart from these successes as we move into 2026 – they provide tangible evidence that the rollback of rights is not inevitable. At moments when systemic forces seek to exhaust us, fragment us, or narrow our sense of what is possible, remembering how change has been won before becomes a political act in itself. By acknowledging and celebrating such achievements, we fuel the movement with the evidence-based hope and imagination required for the long haul.
In this spirit, we are excited to have launched the online Abortion Archives, to safeguard our shared history and document the global movement for safe and legal abortion through art, photography, documents, and campaign materials. The archives remind us that progress has always been collective, built through courage, creativity, strategy, and solidarity across generations. We look forward to working with Champions and allies throughout 2026 to build on and expand the archives together.
Partnership at the Heart
In 2026, SheDecides remains committed to the belief that when we partner, innovate, and share intelligence, we become an unstoppable force. The road ahead is steep and the global context remains uncertain, but with a united movement and a clear-eyed focus on our collective power, we will continue to secure the policy and cultural foundations necessary to guarantee the right to decide – today, tomorrow, and beyond.