Millions of dollars’ worth of birth control pills and other contraceptives destined for people in low-income countries have been destroyed at the direction of the Trump administration, the United States Agency for International Development said on Thursday.
The pills, intrauterine devices and hormonal implants, valued at about $9.7 million, had been purchased by the agency before it was largely dismantled earlier this year. They had been stuck in a warehouse in Belgium for months, since the State Department said that contraception was not “lifesaving” and that the United States would no longer fund the purchase of birth control products for low-income nations.
Internal State Department and U.S.A.I.D. documents and correspondence obtained by The New York Times show that several international organizations, including the Gates Foundation and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, had offered to buy or accept a donation of the contraceptives. The government would have incurred no costs or might have even been able to recoup taxpayer funds under those scenarios.
Instead the administration decided to proceed with destroying the products, an operation that was estimated to cost $167,000.
On Thursday, a spokeswoman for U.S.A.I.D. — which is now being wound down by Russell Vought, the head of the White House Office of Management and Budget — said in a statement to The Times that the contraceptives had been destroyed, and falsely suggested that they induced abortion.
“President Trump is committed to protecting the lives of unborn children all around the world,” the statement said. “The administration will no longer supply abortifacient birth control under the guise of foreign aid.”
U.S.A.I.D. is prohibited by law from procuring abortifacients. None of the products held in the warehouse in Belgium were abortifacients, according to inventory lists obtained by The Times. The listed products, such as hormonal implants, stop pregnancy by preventing ovulation or fertilization.
This fact had repeatedly been made clear to State Department officials by veteran global health program staff, the documents show.
Posted by John3262005