The Trump administration plans to destroy nearly $10 million worth of taxpayer-funded contraceptives, including IUDs, implants, injectables, and pills, intended for girls and women in low-income countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa through USAID.
The decision follows the administration’s cancellation of 83% of USAID’s programs and is influenced by the Mexico City Policy, which restricts U.S. funds from supporting abortion-related services. The contraceptives, stored in a Belgian warehouse, will be incinerated in France at a cost of $167,000, despite offers from organizations like the United Nations Population Fund and MSI Reproductive Choices to purchase or distribute them.
Population control advocates, including humanitarian groups and U.S. senators, condemn the move as “wasteful and harmful” noting the contraceptives could prevent unintended pregnancies and “save lives” in regions with high maternal mortality.
Although it’s not clear when the elimination of these products will be carried out, democratic senators, Jeanne Shaheen (NH) and Brian Schatz (HI) introduced a bill early this month called “Saving Lives and Taxpayer Dollars Act” to prevent the destruction, but it is unlikely to pass.
Most of the contraceptive products expire between 2027-2031, with the earliest expiration date among the products in April 2027, according to the list detailing the nearly 5 million items.
The US State Department spokesperson referred to the contraceptives to be destroyed as “certain abortifacient birth control commodities from terminated Biden-era USAID contracts.”
“Only a limited number of commodities have been approved for disposal. No HIV medications or condoms are being destroyed,” the spokesperson added. “USAID avoided an additional $34.1 million in taxpayer costs by negotiating no-cost cancellations of pending orders placed under the Biden Administration”.
The destruction of these tons of contraceptives – which inevitably encourage the culture of death globally – coincides with the month in which Pope Paul VI published Humanae Vitae (July 25, 1968), an encyclical on Christian morality on the regulation of birth and the dangers involved in the use of artificial contraceptive methods and their imposition as state policy.
This includes sterilization, condoms and other barrier methods, spermicides, coitus interruptus (withdrawal method), the Pill, and all other such contraceptive methods, which can also be abortifacients, as the USSD spokesperson himself clearly pointed out.
Although the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USSCB) has not specifically commented on the destruction of these contraceptives, they have recently launched a prayer campaign specifically to prevent taxpayer dollars from being used for the abortion industry nationwide.
“Americans should not be forced to pay for the killing of preborn children or fund the clinics that kill them” said the American Bishops on their announcement.
In consistency with the Bishops call to end Catholics’ indirect participation in the culture of death, the faithful should also support and celebrate the fact that this administration is not only cutting unnecessary oversees programs but is also ending – in many ways – the contraceptive ideology that incentivizes an immoral lifestyle that goes against God’s perfect design for marriage, sexuality, procreation, and the sanctity of life.
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