As part of president\u2019s end to foreign aid, destruction of the long-acting contraceptives will cost US taxpayers $167,000<\/p>\n
The Trump administration has decided to destroy $9.7m worth of contraceptives rather than send them abroad to women in need.<\/p>\n
A state department spokesperson confirmed that the decision had been made \u2013 a move that will cost US taxpayers $167,000. The contraceptives are primarily long-acting, such as IUDs and birth control implants, and were almost certainly intended for women in Africa, according to two senior congressional aides, one of whom visited a warehouse in Belgium that housed the contraceptives. It is not clear to the aides whether the destruction has already been carried out, but said they had been told that it was set to occur by the end of July.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is unacceptable that the State Department would move forward with the destruction of more than $9m in taxpayer-funded family planning commodities purchased to support women in crisis settings, including war zones and refugee camps,\u201d Jeanne Shaheen, a Democratic senator from New Hampshire, said in a statement. Shaheen and Brian Schatz, a Democratic senator from Hawaii, have introduced legislation to stop the destruction.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a waste of US taxpayer dollars and an abdication of US global leadership in preventing unintended pregnancies, unsafe abortions and maternal deaths,\u201d added Shaheen, who in June sent a letter to the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, about the matter.<\/p>\n
The department decided to destroy the contraceptives because it could not sell them to any \u201celigible buyers\u201d, in part because of US laws and rules that prohibit sending US aid to organizations that provide abortion services, counsel people about the procedure or advocate for the right to it overseas, according to the state department spokesperson.<\/p>\n
Most of the contraceptives have less than 70% of their shelf life left before they expire, the spokesperson said, and rebranding and selling the contraceptives could cost several million dollars. However, the aide who visited the warehouse said that the earliest expiration date they saw on the contraceptives was 2027, and that two-thirds of the contraceptives did not have any USAID labels that would need to be rebranded.<\/p>\n
The eradication of the contraceptives is part of the Trump administration\u2019s months-long demolition of the Agency for International Development (USAID), the largest funding agency for humanitarian and development aid in the world. After the unofficial \u201cdepartment of government efficiency\u201d (Doge) erased 83% of USAID\u2019s programs, Rubio announced in June that USAID\u2019s entire international workforce would be abolished and its foreign assistance programs would be moved to the state department. The agency will be replaced by an organization called America First.<\/p>\n
In total, the funding cuts to USAID could lead to more than 14m additional deaths by 2030, according to a recent study published in the journal the Lancet. A third of those deaths could be children.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you have an unintended pregnancy and you end up having to seek unsafe abortion, it\u2019s quite likely that you will die,\u201d said Sarah Shaw, the associate director of advocacy at MSI Reproductive Choices, a global family planning organization that works in nearly 40 countries. \u201cIf you\u2019re not given the means to space or limit your births, you\u2019re putting your life at risk or your child\u2019s life at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n
The fact that the contraceptives are going to be burned when there\u2019s so much need \u2013 it\u2019s just egregious<\/p>\n
MSI tried to purchase the contraceptives from the US government, Shaw said. But the government would only accept full price \u2013 which Shaw said the agency could not afford, given that MSI would also have to shoulder the expense of transportingthe contraceptives and the fact that they are inching closer to their expiration date, which could affect MSI\u2019s ability to distribute them.<\/p>\n
The state department spokesperson did not specifically respond to a request for comment on Shaw\u2019s allegation, but MSI does provide abortions as part of its global work, which may have led the department to rule it out as an \u201celigible buyer\u201d.<\/p>\n
In an internal survey, MSI programs in 10 countries reported that, within the next month, they expect to be out of stock or be on the brink of being out of stock of at least one contraceptive method. The countries include Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Senegal, Kenya and Sierra Leone.<\/p>\n
Shaw expects the stock to be incinerated. \u201cThe fact that the contraceptives are going to be burned when there\u2019s so much need \u2013 it\u2019s just egregious,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s disgusting.\u201d The Department of State spokesperson did not respond to a request for information on the planned method of destruction.<\/p>\n
The destruction of the contraceptives is, to Shaw, emblematic of the overall destruction of a system that once provided worldwide help to women and families. USAID funding is threaded through so much of the global supply chain of family planning aid that, without its money, the chain has come apart. In Mali, Shaw said, USAID helped pay for the gas used by the vehicles that transport contraceptives from a warehouse. Without the gas money, the vehicles were stuck \u2013 and so were the contraceptives.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve worked in this sector for over 20 years and I\u2019ve never seen anything on this scale,\u201d Shaw said. \u201cThe speed at which they\u2019ve managed to dismantle excellent work and really great progress \u2013 I mean, it\u2019s just vanished in weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other kinds of assistance are also reportedly being wasted. This week, the Atlantic reported that almost 500 metric tons of emergency food were expiring and would be incinerated, rather than being used to feed about 1.5 million children in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Meanwhile, almost 800,000 Mpox vaccines that were supposed to be sent to Africa are now unusable because they are too close to their expiration date, according to Politico.<\/p>\n
The cuts to foreign aid are slated to deepen. Early on Friday morning, Congress passed a bill to claw back roughly $8bn that had been earmarked for foreign assistance.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not just about an empty shelf,\u201d Shaw said. \u201cIt\u2019s about unfulfilled potential. It\u2019s about a girl having to drop out of school. It\u2019s about someone having to seek an unsafe abortion and risking their lives. That\u2019s what it\u2019s really about.\u201d<\/p>\n
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