An umpteenth absurdity of the Trump administration, deleterious for global public health, against which the French State says he can do nothing. In the wake of the dismantling of the USAID, the international development agency, the United States intends to destroy the equivalent of $ 9.7 million in stock of female contraceptives. Feminist associations and leftist officials called on the French government to intervene. Response from the Ministry of Health, to AFP this Friday, August 1: “Insofar as contraceptives are not drugs of major therapeutic interest and that in this case we are not within the framework of a supply tension, we have no means to requisition stocks.”
This contraception material, mainly intrauterine devices and implants, was intended for women living in particular in sub-Saharan Africa. They came from USAID contracts, passed under the chairmanship of Joe Biden. According to Democratic senator Jeanne Shaheen, who tried to fight against this decision, the stock should have been mainly sent to “War areas” et “Refugee camps”. The United States Department of State says that it has chosen this option for lack of buyers, citing an old federal rule (the “Mexico City Policy”, established in 1984, resurrected in January by Trump): it prohibits sending help to foreign organizations who advise abortion, orient women to people who practice or campaign in favor of its decriminalization.
“We have examined the means of action we had, but unfortunately, there is no legal basis allowing an intervention of a European health authority and a fortiori from the National Medicines Safety Agency (ANSM) to recover these medical devices”continues the ministry. He says he has no information on where these contraceptives, stored in Belgium, will be destroyed. According to some Anglo-Saxon media, the operation was to be carried out in France, “At the end of July”by a company specializing in the destruction of medical waste. AFP could not confirm this information from an official source at this stage.
“We were informed of a start of destocking of these contraceptive boxes but we do not know where the trucks are and if they arrived in FranceSarah Durocher’s family schedule said on Thursday. We call on all incineration companies to oppose this insane decision. ”
“I don’t see who in France can accept that it ishas estimated the head of the Greens, Marine Tondelier, on BFM TV-RMC. We absolutely have to know where it will be cremated. ”
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. Belgium said it had taken diplomatic approaches to the American authorities and says it explore all the “Possible tracks to avoid the destruction of these products”.
