The Trump administration has destroyed birth control pills and other contraceptives, valued at about $9.7 million, destined for people in low income countries, despite several international organizations, including the Gates Foundation and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, having offered to buy or accept a donation, according to the New York Times.
On Thursday, a spokeswoman for USAID, which is now being wound down by Russell Vought, the head of the White House Office of Management and Budget, said in a statement to The Times that the contraceptives had been destroyed, and falsely suggested that they induced abortion.
“President Trump is committed to protecting the lives of unborn children all around the world,” the statement said.
“The administration will no longer supply abortifacient birth control under the guise of foreign aid.”
By law USAID is barred from procuring abortifacients. None of the products in Belgium were abortifacients, according to inventory lists obtained by The Times.
Hormonal implants and similar items prevent pregnancy by stopping ovulation or fertilization. Staff had repeatedly made this clear to State Department officials, the documents show.
Officials have not said exactly when or where the destruction took place.
“The deliberate destruction of nearly $10 million worth of contraceptives, under the blatantly false pretense that they are abortifacients, is an outrageous act of cruelty,” said Beth Schlachter, director of U.S.
External relations for MSI Reproductive Choices, an organization that had repeatedly offered to take over the distribution of the supplies rather than see them destroyed.
“This decision will cost lives, derail progress in global health and strip millions of people of the basic tools they need to plan their families and protect their health,” she said.
In February, Secretary of State Marco Rubio took over USAID, which was established in the 1960s under a Congressional mandate, and began its closure a long standing goal of several top Trump aides.
Remaining foreign aid contracts were shifted to the State Department.
