Washington: blurred around the destruction of contraceptives

Announced in mid-July, the decision of theAmerican administration to destroy, possibly on French soil, a vast stock of female contraceptives Awarded a wave of criticism, but the vagueness remains on the progress of the process.

Engaged in drastic cuts of its humanitarian aid and in an anti-abortion policy, the American administration has confirmed in mid-July wanting to “destroy certain abortive contraceptive products from USAID contracts”.

These contracts had been passed with the American agency for international development by the previous administration of Joe Biden, said the US State Department.

“We don’t know where the trucks are”

According to several media, these contraceptives, whose value amounts to almost $ 10 million, are stored in a warehouse in Geel, Belgium, and their incineration was scheduled “at the end of July” in France.

This is the whole question: is the stock always in Geel? Have the products been cremated? Where?

The president of the family schedule in France, Sarah Durocher, told AFP on Thursday to have been informed “there are thirty-six hours at the start of destocking of these contraceptive boxes”. “But we don’t know where the trucks are and if they arrived in France,” she added.

The name of the company responsible for incineration was not revealed either. In France, the Veolia group, sometimes quoted, said it has a framework contract with Chemonics, the USAID logistics provider, but specified that this contract concerned “only the management of expired products, which is not the case with the stock” in Belgium.

The French group Suez, another waste treatment giant, said “does not provide waste management services for all contraceptive products purchased by USAID”.

The Ministry of Health has indicated that they have no information on the presence or not of contraceptives on French soil.

“Diplomatic approaches”

On the front line, Belgium reacted quickly by ensuring that it has “initiated diplomatic approaches to the United States Embassy in Brussels” and ensured “exploring all possible avenues to avoid the destruction of these products, including temporary relocation solutions”.

In France, the government, arrested by feminist associations and the left, said on Friday that he did not have the “means” to “requisition” the contraceptives.

“We have examined the means of action we had, but unfortunately, there is no legal basis allowing an intervention of European health authority and a fortiori from the National Medicines Safety Agency (ANSM) to recover these medical devices,” the Ministry of Health said.

The announcement of this destruction aroused an uproar, especially in France. Féminist associations, trade union organizations and human rights activists have denounced an “economic mess” and a “insane” decision.

“France has the moral responsibility for acting”

“I do not see who in France can accept that this is being done,” said number one of the Marine Tondelier environmentalists. The Socialist Party urged the president, Emmanuel Macron, not to “be an accomplice of this health and political sinking”.

“France has the moral responsibility for acting,” abounded family planning, recalling that France had become the first country in the world in 2024 to have explicitly registered the freedom to resort to abortion in the Constitution.

Launched on Wednesday by the abortion collective in Europe, women decide, a petition collected more than 12,000 signatures.

Several international organizations engaged in the question of contraception have indicated that it has proposed, without success, to the American administration to buy it and to recondition the stocks of contraceptives.

AFP

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