In early September, when the Trump administration stated they were planning to incinerate $9.7 million worth of birth control in Belgium, it meant that millions of women in crisis-setting countries would experience unwanted pregnancies, indulge in unsafe abortions and have their own health subject to the severe complications that come with pregnancy and childbirth. Every day, as the supply of contraceptives remains in the Belgium warehouse, they get closer to their expiration date and will not be allowed to be exported to countries where women depend on them, which is the intent of the United States government. Aid workers say they will hold birth control until it expires and becomes unusable or unable to be exported due to shelf life importation rules. Countries such as Tanzania do not allow certain medicines to come into the country if it has less than 60% of the total shelf life. The U.S. government has denied the United Nations Population Fund, the International Planned Parenthood Federation or MSI Reproductive Choices to purchase the supply at full price and distribute it themselves.
The birth control supply includes nearly 5 million items, including contraceptive pills, intrauterine devices (IUDs) and hormonal implants.
This supply was purchased before the massive cuts on the United States Agency for International Development (U.S.A.I.D) occurred — and before the system was largely dismantled — meaning that taxpayers and the government have pooled their money into a supply intended for destruction. The US State Department said in a statement that it had taken a “preliminary decision” to destroy the contraceptives in Belgium, at a cost of $167,000 for incineration. The reason for the lack and suspension of incineration is that Flanders, Belgium (the location of the warehouse) has a ban on destroying reusable medical devices.
Officials in June ordered the destruction of the materials after the State Department said that contraception was not “lifesaving” and the US would no longer fund the purchase of birth control products for low-income nations.
A U.S. State Department spokesperson previously referred to the contraceptives held in Belgium as “certain abortifacient birth control commodities.” The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) told CNN that there is “no such thing as an abortifacient contraceptive,” meaning a form of birth control that acts the same way as an abortion. “By definition, contraceptives prevent pregnancy – not end a pregnancy. IUDs and other forms of birth control do not cause abortion,” ACOG said.
Chelsea Polis, an employee of the Guttmacher Institute, told CNN that birth control has prevented over 17 million unwanted pregnancies, 5.2 million unsafe abortions and saved 34,000 women’s lives annually.
Sudan and Yemen are two countries classified as crisis settings by Polis. Their crises are partially defined by women being at high rates of sexual violence and a greater risk of severe complications or death due to pregnancy and childbirth. Previously, American funding provided contraceptive devices and the medical services that were estimated to save 34,000 women’s lives annually, according to an analysis by the Guttmacher Institute.
There is little information made public about the supply’s whereabouts and intended whereabouts for the future. It is unclear if the supply of contraceptives will be allowed to be transported to another country in order to incinerate it, or if it will stay locked up in the Belgian warehouse.
By now, the locked-up supply could have helped more than 1.5 million women and couples in low-income countries to time and space their pregnancies at a time convenient for the health and wealth of their family. Polis called the decision a deliberate infringement on maternal mortality, heavily impacting the well-being of thousands of women where birth control is being withheld.
Without the option of birth control, a woman’s life is put in danger because of the risks of pregnancy, especially in third-world countries, where women are being impacted by this decision. It also leads to women resorting to unsafe abortions.
The decision is expensive to US taxpayers and causes harm to families, sending a message to neighbouring countries about the United States’ esteem in which they hold the health of women in lower-income countries.
The demand for the incineration of contraceptives has once again broadened the gap between political parties. Conservatives from the right wing offer their opinion that the supply should not be distributed, as many view contraceptives as abortifacient and unnatural. This comes back to debates on whether Roe v. Wade deserved to be overturned. The decision in June of 2022 caused outrage across the country, increasing the fight for the reproductive rights of women. Its overturning returned the authority to ban abortion to individual states and eliminated the federal constitutional right to abortion. The debate of when life started was what led to the decision, and what contributed to the attempt to incinerate the contraceptives. Many liberals from the left wing are outraged by the administration’s actions on contraceptives. While the supply has been held for months, liberals view the refusal to distribute the birth control as an extra layer of cruelty, especially now, with SNAP benefits running out, leaving almost 42 million people without the necessary funding to provide food for themselves and their families.
The lack of distribution of birth control indicates a pattern of defunding contraception to women in low-income countries.
Title X is a national, publicly funded family planning program, prioritizing those with low incomes. Trump’s Project 2025 seeks to undermine this contraceptive provision by defunding Title X. The plan details the prohibition of abortion referrals and separation from abortion-related activities, including counseling.