US set to burn $9.7M contraceptives in France, Greens oppose move

The State Department has confirmed plans to destroy millions of dollars’ worth of taxpayer-funded contraceptives meant for women in low-income countries. The controversial move comes as the Trump administration continues to scale back foreign aid.

A stockpile of family planning products — including IUDs, implants and pills — worth $9.7 million has been stuck at a warehouse in Belgium since the administration dismantled the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and froze foreign aid earlier this year, according to statements from multiple humanitarian groups and US lawmakers.

The products’ expiration dates range from 2027 to 2031, according to Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières, or MSF) and the reproductive health care nonprofit MSI United States.

The contraceptives were intended for girls and women in low-income countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. But instead of going to crisis zones and refugee camps, they will be incinerated in Europe.

In a statement shared with NPR, the State Department confirmed that the US will spend $167,000 to destroy the contraceptives at a French facility that handles medical waste.

“Only a limited number of commodities have been approved for disposal,” it said, adding that no HIV medications or condoms are being destroyed.

Several international humanitarian organizations, including MSI and UNFPA — the United Nations’ sexual and reproductive health agency — say they tried to buy the supplies from the US but were rejected.

Critics of the plan — including some lawmakers in the US and France — are now hoping they can push for a last-minute change before the stocks are due to be destroyed at the end of July.

If not, they say, the lives of millions of people will be at risk of complications from unwanted or mistimed pregnancies.

Chelsea Polis, principal research scientist at the Guttmacher Institute, which supports abortion rights, told NPR that the $9.7 million worth of contraceptives could have provided pregnancy prevention for more than 650,000 people for up to one year, and for 950,000 people for three to 10 years, depending on the method.

“These are essential, lifesaving supplies that would have supported reproductive autonomy and prevented unsafe abortions and maternal deaths — being wasted and destroyed at US taxpayers’ expense, despite offers from global partners to distribute them to women and families in need,” she added. NPR