This Friday August 1st, France said they could not requisition the stocks of contraceptives intended to be destroyed on the orders of Donald Trump. Several NGOs offer alternatives.
An order of the Trump administration could lead to the destruction of millions of contraceptives in France according to the calculations of the Washington Post, more than 50,000 IUDs, 900,000 implants, nearly 2 million injectable doses, and as many pills of pill, bought by the United States for 9.7 million dollars are stored in a warehouse in Geel, in Belgium, waiting for a French Medical waste.
These products, funded under the Biden administration via USAID – the American agency for international development – were initially intended for women living in low -resources countries, especially in sub -Saharan Africa. Washington justifies this decision by the “Mexico City Policy”, restored by Donald Trump in 2017, which prohibits funding foreign NGOs practicing or promoting abortion. The Trump administration also talks to the Guardian, which caused revelations on July 18, a cup of $ 9 billion in international aid from July 18 and an imminent contraceptive expiration. However, according to several media sources, these products would remain usable between April 2027 and September 2031.
Under pressure since announcement, France declared this Friday, August 1, not having “any means of requisitioning” these products. “Insofar as contraceptives are not drugs of major therapeutic interest (MITM) and that in the present case we are not in the context of supply tension, we have no means of requisitioning stocks,” the Ministry of Health told AFP, reports BFMTV. The government also has no information on the exact location where products must be incinerated in France.
France has “no way to requisition” the stock
Two days earlier, on July 30, the Ministry of Labor, Health and Solidarity, however, said on France Culture wanting “Find a solution to avoid the destruction of contraceptives”, while following the situation “carefully”. “The defense of sexual and reproductive rights and health is one of the priorities of France’s foreign policy,” said the Ministry of Labor, Health and Solidarity.
In Belgium, where the products are still stored, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has confirmed that it has “initiated diplomatic procedures” from the United States Embassy in Brussels. “All tracks are explored to avoid the destruction of these products, including the temporary transfer of products,” said a spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to AFP cited by France 24.
The cost of the operation is estimated at $ 167,000, Or around 146,000 euros. En Raison of the high concentration of hormones of these contraceptives, they will have to “be cremated twice,” said an American parliamentary assistant at CNN. Their transport to France would require several dozen trucks and approximately two weeks of journey, according to a source cited by Reuters.
Alternatives offered
Faced with this “huge mess”, several NGOs have offered alternatives. The international organization MSI Reproductive Choices said it was ready to “buy, recondition and manage logistics” at no cost for the American government, everything “ensuring that the products reach people in need”. The International Federation for Family Planning (IPPF) has made the same offer, ready to “collect products in Brussels, transport them and recondition them in its warehouse in the Netherlands” to distribute them to women in need around the world. But these proposals were systematically refused by Washington.
In France, a collective of associations, including family schedule, dare feminism or the League for Human Rights, launched a petition against this destruction project. Launched on Wednesday July 30 on Change.org, she has already collected more than 12,000 signatures. The ecological group at the National Assembly also sent an open letter to Emmanuel Macron, exhorting him to intervene: “Our country cannot be accomplice, even indirectly, of retrograde policies”, they wrote.
