The Trump administration to burn $ 13 million in female contraceptives, despite the NGO offer to take them

The US State Department plans to incinerate around $ 13.2 million in women’s contraceptives despite the offers of several assistance agencies to distribute without costs.

Supplies, which include various forms of contraception, were intended for family planning programs in low -income African countries.

Instead, they have been sitting in a warehouse in Belgium for months after the administration of President Donald Trump froze most of the foreign aids in January.

MSI Reproductive Choices, a global artist in the United Kingdom based in the United Kingdom, said that he had proposed to take the supplies and distribute them to those who need it free of charge for the government, but their offer has been reprimanded.

“For me, it sends a really clear signal that this is an ideological position,” said Sarah Shaw, MSI advocacy director, said In this case The guest host Paul Hunter.

“It is only another war of war against women that we currently see leaving the United States, both at the national and international level.”

Shaw says that MSI was informed by an intermediary that the government wanted to sell products with market value, which the charity could not afford to do.

The United Nations Sexual and Reproductive Health Agency, the FNU, proposed to buy the contraceptives, also in vain, according to Reuters.

The US State Department did not answer CBC questions. But the spokesperson Tommy Pigott told journalists on Thursday that the government was “still determining the path to follow”.

Belgium calls it a “regrettable result”

The supplies, valued at $ 9.7 million US dollars, formerly belonged to the American Agency for International Development (USAID), which the Trump administration closed.

During a press briefing on Thursday, Pigott said that supplies do not include condoms or HIV drugs, but rather “select products” bought under the previous administration which “could potentially be abortion”, which means products that induce abortion.

But aid agencies and media organizations say that the supplies planned for destruction are designed to prevent unwanted pregnancies, and not terminate them.

Reuters, citing seven confidential sources close to history, reports that the warehouse contains contraceptive pills and implants, as well as intrauterine devices, which are all forms of contraception.

PIGOTT said that products could be informed of the KEMP-KASTEN amendment, which prevents the government from supporting programs that engage in “coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization”, as well as Mexico City, a pact that prohibits the American government from contributing or working with organizations that provide services or information related to abortion.

The latter could explain why the United States refused MSI’s offer, explains Shaw. Its organization refuses to comply with Mexico City Policy, which it and other aid organizations call “the World Order of Bag”.

But that does not explain why they have rejected openings similar to others who try to prevent contraceptives from relaxing the expenses of taxpayers, she said.

The Belgian Foreign Ministry said that Brussels had interviews with the American authorities and “explored all possible options to prevent destruction, including temporary relocation”.

“Despite these efforts, and with full respect for our partners, no viable alternative could be obtained. Nevertheless, Belgium continues to actively seek solutions to avoid this unfortunate result,” he said in a press release.

“Sexual and reproductive health should not be subject to ideological constraints.”

Turau in France

The State Department previously confirmed that it would spend US $ 167,000 ($ 228,000 CDN) to incine the contraceptives in an establishment in France which manages medical waste.

This news is not well in France, where legislators, boresic health organizations and feminist groups call on the government to cancel it.

“We closely follow this situation and we support the will of the Belgian authorities to find a solution to avoid the destruction of the contraceptives,” the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement published by the Guardian.

“Defense of sexual health and reproduction rights is a priority for foreign policy for France.”

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Shaw says that it is grateful to the inhabitants of France who defend this cause.

“Even if we cannot stop destruction, we are not going to let it happen quietly,” she said. “If this happens on French soil under a government which has a feminist foreign policy, I think it would be a great shame, a great shame.”

Doctors Without Borders call the “reckless and harmful” plan

April Benoît, CEO of Doctors Without Borders in the United States, described the plan as “the reckless and harmful act against women and girls around the world”.

“Contraceptives are essential and vital health products,” she said in a press release. “(Our organization) has seen the positive benefits for health when women and girls can freely make their own health decisions by choosing to prevent or delay pregnancy – and dangerous consequences when they cannot.”

Shaw agrees. She says the United States has made a big problem on the government’s efficiency search when it reduces global aid and its own public service.

But each dollar spent in bORNESIC health, she says, leads to much more important savings on the road.

“It makes no sense for me. If they really want efficiency, investing in family planning is the best investment you can make for development,” she said.

“You keep girls in schools. You break generational poverty cycles. You create an opportunity for a new generation of young women.

“It is obvious. It was therefore a completely political act, and African women will pay the price.”