The International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) on Friday strongly condemned a controversial plan to incinerate US-funded contraceptives worth nearly $10 million in France — a move first reported by Reuters earlier this week — calling it an intentional act that could deprive countless women of essential reproductive healthcare.
The supplies, including contraceptive implants and pills, have been sitting for months in a warehouse in Geel, a city in Belgium’s Antwerp province, after President Donald Trump froze US foreign aid in January. They are now being sent to France for destruction.
IPPF Urges Reconsideration
IPPF called on the French, Belgian and US governments to find a way to save the contraceptives, and on the French company that would be responsible for the destruction “to reconsider its role”.
“This is an intentional act of reproductive coercion,” it said in a statement.
Mexico City Policy
Washington has previously said it did not want any USAID-branded supplies, like the ones in Belgium, to be rerouted elsewhere.
A source familiar with the matter informed Reuters that the Trump administration was implementing the move in line with the Mexico City policy — an anti-abortion agreement that restricts US funding to foreign organisations involved in abortion-related activities — which President Trump had formally reinstated in January, reaffirming his administration’s stance on conservative reproductive health policies.
The State Department also told Reuters that related concerns about the end-destination of the contraceptives were factors in the decision.
The IPPF stated that it had proactively offered to take responsibility for collecting, transporting, repackaging, and distributing the contraceptive products to women in need across the globe — “all at no cost to the US government”.
Despite this comprehensive and humanitarian proposal, the US government reportedly rejected the offer, drawing criticism for prioritising political ideology over the urgent reproductive health needs of vulnerable women worldwide.
(With inputs from Reuters)
