Lawmakers and activists in Europe and the United States are scrambling to stop the State Department from destroying nearly $10 million worth of contraceptives funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
The contraceptives have been sitting in a warehouse in Belgium for months after President Trump froze all U.S foreign aid and shuttered USAID earlier this year.
“They are not even close to being expired,” said Nabeeha Kazi Hutchins, president and CEO of reproductive health rights group PAI, adding the government “could redistribute them or could let an entity or a set of entities acquire them, but the administration has opposed that.”
Lawmakers, activists and reproductive health nonprofits alike have decried the move as a waste of taxpayer money that will hurt millions of women and girls in the developing world.
“It’s a death sentence that’s written in policy,” Kazi Hutchins said.
More than 75 percent of the stockpile was earmarked for five countries in Africa: Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Mali and Congo, according to a report from the International Planned Parenthood Federation.
The nonprofit estimates that if the supplies are incinerated, 1.4 million women and girls across those countries will go without access to life-saving reproductive care.
The United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency, UNFPA, tried to buy the contraceptives but was rejected, as was the London-based reproductive health care group MSI Reproductive Choices, a spokesperson told The Hill.
Since then, the government of Belgium has tried to appeal to the U.S. Embassy in Brussels to protect the contraceptives.
“[The Ministry of] Foreign Affairs is exploring all possible avenues to prevent the destruction of these stocks, including their temporary relocation,” foreign ministry spokesperson Pierre Steverlynck said.
“To avoid prejudging the outcome of these discussions, we are not in a position to provide further information at this stage.”
Democratic lawmakers have introduced two bills, one in the Senate and another in the House, to force Secretary of State Marco Rubio to ensure that food supplies and contraceptives that have already been procured are sent to their intended beneficiaries before they expire.
Dozens of lawmakers, led by Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.), have also sent a letter to acting Inspector General Arne B. Baker requesting an investigation into the mismanagement of the contraceptives.
French family planning activists have rallied to try to stop the destruction of the contraceptives, and left-leaning French politicians have urged President Emmanuel Macron to intervene and take control of the stockpile.
Several French female lawmakers, including the head of the country’s Green Party, Marine Tondelier, wrote an open letter to Macron calling the cutting of aid for contraceptives “shameful” and arguing that since the items are scheduled to be destroyed in France, France has a right to stop it.
The French government contends it cannot legally save the contraceptives unilaterally. Mélissa Camara, a French member of the European Parliament who also signed the letter, called on the European Commission to intervene. The commission said it was “monitoring the situation and exploring solutions,” according to The New York Times.
The contraceptives were meant to be burned at a medical waste facility in France last month, but it is unclear if this has happened. PAI, MSI Reproductive Choices and other reproductive health groups are working to find out where the commodities are and when they will be destroyed, but they have received radio silence from the State Department and officials in Europe.
“It could happen in the next week or in the next several months, nobody really knows,” Kazi Hutchins said.
One French family planning group, Le Planning Familial, told The Hill that the contraceptives have left the warehouse in Belgium and are headed to an “unknown destination.”
Le Planning Familial President Sarah Durocher said the organization is still applying pressure on the French government to save the contraceptives through petitions and social media campaigns.
The earliest that any of the contraceptives in the stockpile are set to expire is in 2027, according to the International Planned Parenthood Federation.
Still, a spokesperson for the State Department told The Hill earlier this week the agency made a “preliminary decision” to destroy abortifacients — substances used to induce abortions — within the stockpile, but that no HIV medication or condoms will be destroyed.
The stockpile is a mix of hormonal birth control pills, shots, implants and IUDs, none of which can be used to perform an abortion, according to reproductive health nonprofits with knowledge of the supplies in Belgium.
One source who visited the warehouse housing the stockpile in Belgium told The Hill that they did not see any abortifacients among the supplies. Under federal law, USAID is also not allowed to purchase abortifacients.
“It’s a lie,” said Sarah Shaw, associate director of advocacy at MSI Reproductive Choices. “It’s a blatant attempt to misrepresent a couple of contraceptive methods and to stigmatize the women who use them.”
A spokesperson for the State Department did not respond to The Hill’s questions about the stockpile or why they believe it has abortifacients.
