Trump administration sends $10,000,000 worth of birth control to be burned instead of donating it for aid
Topics: Donald Trump, US News
Joe Yates
Featured Image Credit: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Topics: Donald Trump, US News
The Trump administration is set to destroy just shy of $10 million worth of contraception at a cost of an additional $167,000 paid by the US taxpayer.
President Donald Trump's top dogs have signed off on the burning of contraceptive pills, intrauterine devices (IUDS) and implants, despite charities offering to distribute them free of charge.
However, the Republican-run government would rather light up thousands of potentially life-saving supplies - which taxpayers in the US have already spent $9.7 million purchasing.
It's all part of the POTUS' goal of shutting down USAID - which stands for the United States Agency for International Development, and is the world's biggest provider of global aid.
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According to government data, in 2023, the US spent $68 billion on international aid, which equates to 0.6 percent of the government's annual budget of $6.75 trillion.
It's part of the 79-year-old president's plan of reducing the federal wage bill and overseas spending - something he has claimed is necessary to reduce national debt that currently sits at $36.7 trillion... although his new 'big, beautiful bill' is estimated to add a further $3.3 trillion to that list.
However, despite taking the cheaper option, the Trump administration is prepared to take the US a further $167,000 in the red to get rid of the burden - despite the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) explaining that it was prepared to take on all the costs relating to holding, packaging and donating the goods.
Head of IPPF’s supply chain, Marcel Van Valen, has labelled the US Government's argument that it would be cheaper to burn the products than distribute them as 'utter nonsense'.
He added that his charity has even offered to take over the handling of them.
"[IPPF has offered to] go and collect the products, to repack them [at] our cost and to do the distribution throughout the globe with our partners and even competitors in this space," he explained per the Independent.
Meanwhile, the non-profit organization MSI Reproductive Choices also offered to take on the products.
"This isn’t about government efficiencies. This is about exporting an ideology that’s harmful to women,” its associate advocacy director, Sarah Shaw, said per the publication.
"The annual contraceptive bill for Senegal for the entire country is $3m a year. So the contents of that warehouse could have met all of Senegal’s contraceptive needs for three years. And instead, we’re going to see massive shortages.
"We’re going to see Senegalese women dying of unsafe abortion, girls having to drop out of school."
The items were being held in warehouses across France and Belgium, but are now being transported to a specialist facility where they will be incinerated.