Nearly $10 million in contraceptives paid for by the United States government are still being held in warehouse in Belgium, despite reports that the Trump administration has destroyed them, officials said Friday.
The contraceptives were purchased by the United States Agency for International Development to be distributed to low-income countries before the agency was dismantled earlier this year.
Since then, the stockpile of birth control pills, hormonal implants, shots and intrauterine devices have sat in a warehouse in Geel, Belgium, as lawmakers, activists and health nonprofits in the U.S. and abroad scrambling to save them.
Several organizations including the United Nation’s sexual and reproductive health agency, UNFPA, offered to buy the products. But the Trump administration refused multiple bids for the still usable $9.7 million worth of contraceptives and planned to spend $167,000 to destroy them at a medical waste facility in France over the summer.
The New York Times reported late Thursday that the products were destroyed at the direction of Trump officials. But a spokesperson for a Belgium official told The Hill that reports of the products destruction are untrue claiming that an on-site inspection of the contraceptives was conducted Friday morning.
“The report previously published in The New York Times stating that the contraceptives stored at Keuhne & Nagal had been destroyed is incorrect,” wrote Tom Demeyer, spokesperson for the Cabinet of the Flemish Minister of Environment and Agriculture.
Demeyer added that since the contraceptives have not expired, they fall under a local agency ban on incinerating reusable goods.
“Such an incineration can only take place if an ‘exemption from the incineration ban’ is granted by the Minister for the Environment and a double levy on waste incineration is paid,” he wrote.
“No such exemption has been requested or granted to date.”
The conflicting reports have shaken some of the health nonprofits that have worked to obtain and track the contraceptives.
“We are closely tracking this situation, but remain deeply disappointed by the lack of transparency from the U.S. government, which has created confusion. We hear one thing from one source and another from elsewhere. Regardless, the decision to incinerate contraceptives remains appalling,” said Nabeeha Kazi Hutchins, president and CEO of PAI.
“These are lifesaving supplies that women and families urgently need, and the U.S. — with its long history of leadership in global health — should be upholding that legacy, not destroying it. The contradictory information coming out of the administration only underscores the urgent need for honesty and accountability in how these decisions are made.”
USAID did not immediately respond to questions from The Hill.
