France under pressure to stop $9.7m of USAID contraceptives being destroyed | France
The French government said that it was closely monitoring an American plan to destroy millions of dollars of contraceptives stored in Europe after the indignation of French feminists, rights defense of rights and family planning organizations in what they called an unnecessary attack on women’s rights.
The Guardian reported this month that the administration of Donald Trump planned to destroy $ 9.7 million in contraceptives which would be in a warehouse in Belgium but which could be transferred to France for incineration. It was mainly prolonged action contraceptives such as DIUs and contraceptive implants, which had been purchased in public health programs led by the American agency for international development and were probably intended for women in Africa.
A spokesperson for the US State Department told Agency France-Pressse this week that “a preliminary decision had been made to destroy” certain contraceptive products from “USAID contracts in the Biden Age”.
Trump administration dismantled USAID, the country’s foreign help armor in January.
The spokesman said that destruction would cost $ 167,000 and “no drug or HIV condom was destroyed”.
The contraceptives, stored in a Geel warehouse in Belgium, would have been planned to be cremated in France, although there was no confirmation of this France. France and Belgium are under pressure to avoid any destruction.
The French Ministry of Health said in a statement: “We closely follow this situation and we support the will of the Belgian authorities to find a solution to avoid the destruction of the contraceptives.
“Defense of sexual health and reproduction rights is a priority for foreign policy for France.”
This week, a collective of rights groups, feminist organizations and unions in France launched a petition to stop the destruction of contraceptives. “We will not allow this unfair and sexist decision to go ahead, it is both economic and human waste,” they said.
French Green Chef, Marine Tondelier, signed an open letter calling for the French president, Emmanuel Macron, to intervene to prevent contraceptives from being destroyed. “Our country cannot be an accomplice, even indirectly, in retrograde policies,” said the letter.
Céline Thiébault-Martinez, a socialist legislative, told France Inter Radio Thursday that if France did not speak of the destruction of these contraceptives, it “would lose the credibility of women”.
Sarah Durocher, head of a French family planning group, said: “France has the moral responsibility for acting.”
Charles Dallara, whose political grandfather Lucien Neuwirth supported French law authorizing oral contraceptives in 1967, wrote an open letter to Macron in which he urged the president not to “let France become an accomplice in this scandal”.
The Belgian government said it was in urgent contact with the United States, but it could not yet say if the contraceptives had already been moved to France.
A spokesperson for the Foreign Affairs Department said he had contacted the United States Embassy in Brussels as soon as he learned about the possible destruction of contraception actions held in Geel’s warehouse. “Foreign affairs explore all possible pathways to prevent the destruction of these actions, including their temporary resettlement,” they added.
“We do not currently have additional details which would confirm whether a transfer of these products in France has taken place.”
The International Organization MSI Reproductive Choices said that it had proposed “to buy, recondition and manage logistics at our expense, ensuring that the products reach those who need it”, but the offer has been rejected.
International Planned Parenthood Federation (PPI) made a similar offer “at no cost for the American government” which has also been refused, AFP reported.
