US plans to incinerate $9.7M in USAID contraceptives

The Trump administration plans to incinerate more than $9.7 million worth of contraceptives funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) that have been lying in a warehouse in Belgium since President Trump's order freezing foreign aid and shutting down USAID.

The U.S. government is spending more than $160,000 to burn the mix of birth control pills, shots, implants, and IUDs at a facility in France that destroys medical waste, according to The New York Times.

The Department of State said in a statement to The Hill that it has made a "preliminary decision" to destroy some "abortifacient" birth control products, meaning that they induce abortions. It said no HIV medications or condoms would be destroyed.

But the Times reported that none of the supplies registered for storage in the Belgian warehouse fit that description, and USAID, under the law isn't allowed to purchase products that induce abortions.

The department in the statement to The Hill argued it has avoided an additional $34.1 million in taxpayer costs by negotiating no-cost cancellations of pending orders placed by the Biden administration.

It also said the Kemp-Kasten amendment prohibits it from providing assistance to an organization or program that supports or participates in the management of a program of "coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization."

"This includes non-abortifacient contraceptives provided as assistance to entities that do not make the commitment required under the policy," the statement reads. 

A spokesperson for the Department of State did not immediately respond to requests for clarification. 

European governments and activist groups have decried the decision.

The International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), a nonprofit, estimates incinerating contraceptives will leave 1.4 million women and girls across Africa with access to life-saving care.

For the past nine years, USAID has spent $607.5 million on global family planning and reproductive programs, according to the Guttmacher Institute. Those funds have helped operate family planning and reproductive health programs in more than 30 countries.  

France is under pressure to stop the impending destruction of the stockpile from French reproductive rights groups and family planning organizations, though officials said earlier this month they cannot legally seize the contraceptives.  

The IPPF estimates 77 percent of the supplies are earmarked for five African countries: Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Mali, and Congo.  

More than 40 percent of the soon-to-be destroyed supplies were meant for Tanzania alone, according to the nonprofit.  

The IPPF wrote in a statement the supplies are being “needlessly and egregiously” destroyed and that many of the contraceptives will not expire until 2027 at the earliest and 2029 at the latest.  

“This decision to destroy ready-to-use commodities is appalling and extremely wasteful,” said Marie-Evelyne Petrus-Barry, Africa regional director of the IPPF.  

“These life-saving medical supplies were destined to countries where access to reproductive care is already limited, and in some cases, part of a broader humanitarian response, such as in the [Congo].”  

Destroying the contraceptive supplies will result in 362,000 unintended pregnancies which can force some to seek out unsafe abortions, and will cause 161,000 unplanned births, according to the Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition (RHSC).  

The IPPF estimates that once the contraceptives are destroyed, Tanzania will have more than 1 million fewer injectable contraceptives and 365,100 fewer implants to distribute — or about 28 percent of the country’s total annual need.  

Mali will experience a shortage of more than 1,100,000 oral contraceptives and 95,800 implants or roughly 24 percent of the country’s annual need. Zambia will have 48,400 fewer implants and 295,000 injectable contraceptives to distribute to women.  

In Kenya, nearly 14 percent of the country’s annual contraceptive need will not be met, and more than 100,000 women will not be able to access contraceptive implants this year.