Latest news with #MexicoCityPolicy
News24
4 days ago
- Health
- News24
Trump administration set to incinerate contraceptives worth $10M destined for sub-saharan Africa
The Trump administration plans to destroy $9.7 million worth of contraceptives intended for sub-Saharan Africa and other poor regions. The destruction is linked to Trump's reinstatement of the 'Mexico City Policy' (also called the 'global gag rule'), which prohibits providing aid to organisations that perform or promote abortions. Multiple organisations offered to take the contraceptives at no cost to the US government - including MSI Reproductive Choices and the International Planned Parenthood Federation - but these offers were repeatedly rejected. The US administration's decision to destroy nearly $10 million worth of women's contraception products has sparked furious condemnation from doctors and aid groups, who have slammed the move as a wasteful attack on women's rights. The contraceptives are being stored in Belgium and are reportedly planned to be incinerated in France. Both European countries are under pressure to prevent the destruction. What has the US announced? On 18 July, British newspaper the Guardian cited two US Congress sources as saying that President Donald Trump's administration planned to destroy $9.7 million worth of contraceptives, which are mostly long-acting such as IUDs and birth control implants. The contraceptives - intended for some of the world's poorest countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa - are stored in a warehouse in the Belgian city of Geel. They are to be incinerated at the end of July, according to the Guardian report. A US State Department spokesperson told AFP this week that "a preliminary decision was made to destroy certain" birth control products from "terminated Biden-era USAID contracts". Trump's administration dismantled USAID, the country's foreign aid arm, after returning to the White House in January, replacing former president Joe Biden. The State Department spokesperson said the destruction will cost $167,000 and "no HIV medications or condoms are being destroyed." Why? The spokesperson pointed AFP to a policy that prohibits providing aid to non-governmental organisations that perform or promote abortions. The Mexico City Policy, which critics call the "global gag rule", was first introduced by President Ronald Reagan in 1984, and has been reinstated under every Republican president since. The Trump administration has also slashed foreign aid, with the Senate this month approving a package that cut around $8 billion in international funding, much of it intended for USAID. Research has estimated that the USAID cuts will lead to the deaths of 14 million people by 2030. Earlier this month, the US also incinerated nearly 500 metric tons of high-nutrition biscuits which were meant to keep malnourished children in Afghanistan and Pakistan alive. Trump has also repeatedly moved to restrict abortion access in the United States, taking credit for the Supreme Court overturning the nationwide right to abortion in 2022. The US State Department also suggested to the Guardian that the contraceptives were nearing the end of their shelf life. However media reports have since said that the products expire between April 2027 and September 2031. What are the alternatives? Belgium's foreign ministry told AFP that it has "initiated diplomatic efforts with the United States embassy in Brussels" about the contraceptives. The government "is exploring all possible avenues to prevent the destruction of these products, including temporary relocation solutions," it added. The international organisation MSI Reproductive Choices said it had offered to "purchase, repackage, and manage logistics at our expense, ensuring the products reach those in need". However, this offer was repeatedly rejected, it said in a statement. The International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) made a similar offer at "no cost to the US government" that was also turned down. What are people saying? New Hampshire's Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen pointed to the Trump administration's stated goal of reducing government waste, saying the contraceptives plan "is the epitome of waste, fraud and abuse". Shaheen and Democratic Senator Brian Schatz have introduced a bill aiming to prevent further US aid being wasted. The IPPF said the contraceptives plan is "an intentional act of reproductive coercion". Doctors Without Borders called it a "callous waste". MSI advocacy director Sarah Shaw said it was "an ideological assault on reproductive rights, and one that is already harming women". The head of the French Family Planning group, Sarah Durocher, observed that last year France became the first country to enshrine the right to abortion in its Constitution. "France has a moral responsibility to act," she said. French Green leader Marine Tondelier signed an open letter calling on President Emmanuel Macron to stop the contraceptives from being destroyed. "Our country cannot be complicit, even indirectly, in retrograde policies," the letter read.
UPI
5 days ago
- Health
- UPI
State Department to burn birth control worth $9.7M meant for poor nations
The U.S. government plans to destroy $9.7 million of contraceptives for poor nations, mainly in Africa, after the nation "explored all possible options to prevent the destruction." UPI file photo | License Photo July 27 (UPI) -- The U.S. government plans to destroy a stockpile of contraceptives worth $9.7 million for poor nations, mainly in Africa, after the State Department "explored all possible options to prevent the destruction." The contraceptives include nearly 2 million doses of injectables, 900,000 implantable devices and more than 2 million oral packets, according to internal auditing in April obtained by The Washington Post. Chelsea Polis, a researcher with Guttsmacher Institute, which supports abortion rights, told the newspaper that the contraceptives could provide more than 650,000 women with pregnancy protection for up to one year and 950,000 women for three years. U.S. laws and rules prohibit sending U.S. aid to organizations that provide abortion services, counsel about the procedure or advocate for the right overseas. "The State Department confirms that a preliminary decision was made to destroy certain abortifacient birth control commodities from terminated Biden-era USAID contracts," a spokesperson said in a statement. "Only a limited number of commodities have been approved for disposal. No HIV medications or condoms are being destroyed." The destruction will cost $167,000, the spokesperson said. Most contraceptives have less than 70% of shelf life before expiration, the spokesperson said. The Guardian contacted an aide who visited the warehouse in Belgium and found the earliest expiration date was 2027. Two-thirds didn't have any labels. Belgium, the United Nations and humanitarian groups said they unsuccessfully stopped the destruction plans for the contraceptives. The U.S. Agency for International Development, which Trump disbanded and merged into the State Department, was to have distributed them. They are part of a $9.5 billion program over 10 years to provide aid to more than 40 nations. The government said it based its decision on a policy that restricts funding for reproductive-related actions in the Mexico City Policy and the Kemp-Kasten amendment. President Ronald Reagan instituted the policy in 1985 and it has become a political issue. It has rescinded by Democratic presidents and reinstated by Republicans several times, including by President Donald Trump when he returned to office in January. A bipartisan group of U.S. legislators doesn't want the contraceptives to be destroyed, including Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Democrats Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Brian Schatz of Hawaii. "This is a waste of U.S. taxpayer dollars and an abdication of U.S. global leadership in preventing unintended pregnancies, unsafe abortions and maternal deaths," said Shaheen, who in June sent a letter to the Secretary of State Marco Rubio about the matter. The U.N. Population Fund and the International Planned Parenthood Federation were interested in receiving the contraceptives. "UNFPA was in conversation with Chemonics about purchasing the contraceptives but didn't receive an answer from them," UNFPA spokesman Eddie Wright said. "It's the height of hypocrisy for a government to preach efficiency and cutting waste, only to turn around and recklessly destroy lifesaving supplies when the need has never been greater," Micah Grzywnowicz, regional director of the International Planned Parenthood Federation European Network, said in a statement MSI Reproductive Choices offered to pay for shipping and repackaging. MSI provides abortion services. "The complete dismantling of the world's largest donor for international family planning has been a catastrophe for the global supply chain of contraceptives," said Sarah Shaw, associate director of advocacy and for the organization. Sub-Saharan Africa has experienced an increase in teen births, according to a study at Columbia University in 2024. The number of births climbed from 4.5 million births in 2000 to 6.1 million in 2021as they decreased in the rest of the world. In Africa, 30% of all woman use birth control but more than half would use it if available, according to DebboAfrica, a healthcare company for African women. Worldwide, around half of women of reproductive age of 15-19 use some form of contraception, according to Focus2030. Foreign aid cuts could lead to more than 14 million additional deaths by 2023, including two-thirds children, according to a study published in Lancet earlier this month. Congress earlier this month passed legislation to remove $8 billion in foreign assistance. The Atlantic reported earlier this month that 551 tons of emergency food were expiring and will be incinerated rather than being fed to almost 1.5 million children in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Almost 800,000 Mpox vaccines to be sent to Africa also are not usable because they are past their expiration date, Politico reported earlier this month.
Axios
24-07-2025
- Politics
- Axios
State Department to burn almost $10 million of contraceptives for poor countries
The Trump administration plans to incinerate $9.7 million worth of contraceptives intended for poor nations, after declining offers from the United Nations and reproductive organizations to buy or ship the supplies instead, the State Department confirmed to Axios on Thursday. Why it matters: The move continues the administration's shift away from providing foreign assistance through the United States Agency for International Development, and its stated opposition to abortion-related family planning methods. The supplies set to be destroyed include contraceptive implants, pills, and intrauterine devices, Reuters reported. A spokesperson for the State Department cited multiple policies that prohibit the government from providing abortion-related assistance to foreign organizations as rationale for declining to give the supplies away. What they're saying: In a statement given to Axios, the State Department confirmed that a "preliminary decision was made to destroy certain abortifacient birth control commodities," or substances that can cause abortion, from USAID contracts. Only a "limited number" of commodities have been approved for disposal, and no HIV medications or condoms are being destroyed, per the State Department. A department spokesperson also said that destroying the "existing abortifacient commodities" will cost $167,000. Context: The regulations the government cited to block officials from distributing the supplies are laid out in the Mexico City Policy and Kemp-Kasten amendment, which both allow the executive to restrict funding for reproductive-related actions. President Trump reinstated the Mexico City Policy in January 2025. While in effect, the Mexico City Policy has been used to require foreign non-governmental organizations to pledge that they won't use U.S. funding to "perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning." The Kemp-Kasten amendment has frequently been used to stall funding to the United Nations Population Fund, a U.N. agency centered on studying the global population and reproductive health, according to health policy group KFF. Catch up quick: The Department of Government Efficiency began gutting USAID early on in Trump's presidency, essentially destroying the world's largest humanitarian aid organization over alleged waste and fraud. Certain USAID responsibilities were moved under the jurisdiction of the State Department, and hundreds of employees were informed they'd be let go or reassigned. Zoom out: The Trump administration has also tried to curb access to abortion domestically. Health providers who perform abortions under emergency circumstances were informed in June that they were no longer protected under federal law for doing their work if bans exist in their states. The administration supported South Carolina's successful Supreme Court case to block Medicaid recipients from getting care at Planned Parenthood clinics in the state earlier this year. The administration is also trying to withhold
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Will Congress Finally Defund Planned Parenthood?
Ending federal funding for Planned Parenthood, the largest provider of abortions in the United States, has long been a goal of pro-life groups and their allies in Congress. Back in 2007, a Republican congressman from Indiana named Mike Pence introduced a bill to redirect funding for Planned Parenthood to other organizations that didn't perform elective abortions. The measure failed in a Democratic Congress, but Pence told me at the time that his amendment had been a 'successful failure for the pro-life movement' that laid 'the foundation for building an argument for defunding Planned Parenthood in the future.' Pence argued that his bill was an extension of the principle that taxpayer dollars shouldn't be used to fund elective abortions—or subsidize the organizations that perform them. In Pence's view, he was following in the footsteps of President Ronald Reagan: While foreign aid to directly fund elective abortions had been banned by Congress since 1973, it wasn't until Reagan first implemented the 'Mexico City Policy' in 1985 that subsidies were cut off to overseas organizations that perform or promote abortion. While Congress has consistently banned the direct federal funding under Medicaid of almost all abortions with the Hyde Amendment since 1976, Pence said that 'we need a domestic Mexico City Policy.' Nearly two decades later, congressional Republicans are still trying to enact the policy that Pence called for back in 2007. 'In the weeks ahead, the House is going to be working on the one big, beautiful bill,' Speaker of the House Mike Johnson told attendees at an event sponsored by Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America on April 29. 'We're absolutely making it clear to everybody that this bill is going to redirect funds away from big abortion and to federally qualified health centers.' Johnson's 'one big, beautiful bill' was a Trumpian reference to the budget reconciliation process, which includes special rules that allow the Senate to bypass the typical 60-vote hurdle for legislation and pass a reconciliation bill by a simple majority. Republicans tried—and failed—to defund Planned Parenthood via reconciliation the last time they controlled the White House and both chambers of Congress in 2017. Given that history, one might think pro-life groups would feel a little bit like Charlie Brown watching congressional Republicans play the role of Lucy holding the football. A look back at why Republicans failed to defund Planned Parenthood back in 2017 may shed light on whether they will fail yet again in 2025—especially with such a slimmer and more fractious House majority. The campaign to defund Planned Parenthood—which receives hundreds of millions of dollars each year from the federal government—picked up a lot of momentum in 2015 after undercover activists released videos of Planned Parenthood officials discussing the practice of selling the organs of aborted unborn children to biotech companies for research. Even Hillary Clinton, the eventual 2016 Democratic nominee, called the videos 'disturbing.' John McCain, the late moderate GOP senator from Arizona, was willing to entertain a government shutdown if necessary to defund Planned Parenthood. 'I don't like a government shutdown. … But this is a clear case of totally improper use of taxpayers' dollars,' McCain said at the time. 'If [Democrats] want to stand before the American people and say that they support this practice of dismembering unborn children, then that's their privilege.' Congressional Republicans passed a bill via reconciliation that defunded Planned Parenthood, but Democratic President Barack Obama vetoed it in 2016. As the 2016 GOP presidential nominee, Donald Trump pledged to defund Planned Parenthood if elected. In 2017, House Republicans passed a reconciliation bill to 'repeal and replace' the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, that included a provision to defund Planned Parenthood. But the bill to repeal parts of Obamacare and defund Planned Parenthood failed by one vote in the Senate in July 2017, and congressional Republicans lacked the will to put forward a reconciliation bill that simply defunded Planned Parenthood. When congressional Republicans put forward their second reconciliation bill to cut taxes in December 2017, they left out the provision to defund Planned Parenthood because they were worried they needed the votes of two GOP senators who support a right to abortion, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine. GOP leaders privately promised pro-life groups they would defund Planned Parenthood in a third reconciliation bill, but then the GOP lost an Alabama Senate special election—and with it the 50th anti-abortion vote in the upper chamber. In a 51-49 GOP Senate with Murkowski and Collins, there was no possibility of defunding Planned Parenthood on an up-or-down vote. Flash forward to 2025: Senate Republicans hold 53 seats, giving them enough cushion to lose the votes of Collins and Murkowski and still pass a reconciliation bill. And it's not entirely clear that a provision defunding Planned Parenthood alone would cost Republicans the votes of those two senators. Asked if defunding Planned Parenthood via reconciliation would be a dealbreaker for her, Collins told The Dispatch in the Capitol on Tuesday: 'I'm going to wait and see what the whole package is, rather than singling out individual provisions. The only red line that I've drawn—it's a big one—is on Medicaid funding. … I am very concerned about Medicaid cuts.' Murkowski declined to comment. At the same time, even staunchly pro-life Republican senators stopped short of saying a reconciliation bill must defund Planned Parenthood to get their votes. 'This is something we feel very strongly about, that health care should be about health, not about taking life,' Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford told The Dispatch. 'We're working to be able to get it done. That's all I'll say,' Lankford added when asked if his vote was contingent on defunding Planned Parenthood. 'There's a lot of potential deal-breakers. That one's pretty important,' Missouri GOP Sen. Josh Hawley told The Dispatch. While Republicans have more cushion in the Senate than they did in 2017, they now have a much narrower majority in the House. With 220 Republicans and 213 Democrats (and two vacancies) at present, Johnson can only afford three GOP 'no' votes and pass a reconciliation bill on a party-line vote. This week, a few moderate Republicans signaled opposition to defunding Planned Parenthood, but they also stopped short of threatening to vote down the whole reconciliation bill over that provision. 'Obviously, Planned Parenthood does provide a lot of services outside of abortion,' Rep. Mike Lawler, who is entertaining a gubernatorial bid in deep-blue New York, told reporters Tuesday while adding that he'd have to learn more about what GOP leaders are proposing. On Thursday, another New York Republican, Rep. Nick LaLota, told The Dispatch: 'I don't think we need to touch Planned Parenthood in this reconciliation bill.' Moderate Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania also told The Dispatch on Thursday he opposed defunding Planned Parenthood. It's unclear how many other House Republicans share their objections. Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska told The Dispatch he's fine with redirecting Planned Parenthood funding. 'I think a lot of people feel very uncomfortable providing a lot of money to one of the largest abortion providers in the country,' he said, adding that he'd only heard of a couple Republicans who object to defunding Planned Parenthood. Pro-life groups are optimistic that other House Republicans, even if not staunchly pro-life, are comfortable defunding the organization for other reasons. For example, Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina—who has been skittish about abortion politics since the Dobbs decision while simultaneously taking an aggressive turn against transgender rights—told The Dispatch that she supports efforts to redirect Planned Parenthood funds to community health centers. Planned Parenthood has faced criticism for prescribing hormones to minors experiencing gender dysphoria after consultations as brief as 30 minutes. In February, the New York Times published a scathing report documenting substandard care at multiple Planned Parenthood affiliates. 'Much of the national [private] funding to affiliates went to legal support, public campaigns to expand abortion access and subsidies for patient navigators who help patients access abortions,' the Times reported. The first sign of whether House GOP leadership will follow through on Johnson's pledge for the reconciliation bill to 'redirect funds away from big abortion' could come as early as Tuesday, when the House Energy and Commerce Committee marks up its piece of the reconciliation package. Pro-life groups told The Dispatch they were confident that provision would be in the Energy and Commerce committee bill, but Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick cast doubt on those expectations following the last votes of the week in the House on Thursday. Fitzpatrick told The Dispatch he had just spoken to Energy and Commerce Chairman Brett Guthrie on the House floor, and Fitzpatrick said the committee is 'not aware' of any provision to defund Planned Parenthood. A committee spokesman told The Dispatch he couldn't comment on provisions still under discussion If the House GOP folds less than two weeks after Johnson promised to defund Planned Parenthood, it would be the latest humiliation for pro–lifers who have been repeatedly demoted in the party of Trump since the Dobbs decision. But it wouldn't be the most consequential humiliation. The Trump administration is in court defending former President Joe Biden's rules allowing the abortion pill to be prescribed without an in-person visit to a health care provider and shipped through the mail. And any day now it could announce potential executive orders creating federal subsidies or mandates for in vitro fertilization. The latter policy, without limits on the intentional destruction of human embryos, would greatly undermine the principle that tax dollars shouldn't be used to fund the destruction of unborn human life. 'I think you have to view these issues together,' Tim Chapman, the president of Advancing American Freedom, the political group founded by Mike Pence, told The Dispatch. 'In terms of numbers of unborn lives that are protected, the work that needs to be done on [the abortion pill] mifepristone and the work that needs to be done properly on IVF is astronomically higher' than defunding Planned Parenthood. With that said, according to Chapman, defunding Planned Parenthood is nevertheless 'something that Republicans have been promising for a long time. It's time to deliver on it.'
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
How Trump chipped away at abortion access in his first 100 days
President Trump steadily chipped away at abortion access during the first 100 days of his second term. Trump campaigned on leaving abortion decisions to the states, and has so far made no push to outlaw the procedure on a national level. But since he returned to office in January, he and his administration have taken steps to support anti-abortion activists and restrict access to abortion care not only in the United States, but around the world. Here are four moves the Trump administration has made on abortion so far in the president's second term. Three days after returning to the White House, Trump signed an executive order pardoning 23 anti-abortion protesters, some of whom were convicted of violating a federal law meant to protect abortion clinics from obstruction and threats. The law, the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, was passed in 1994 when crimes against abortion providers were on the rise. 'They should not have been prosecuted. Many of them are elderly people,' Trump told reporters while signing the order. 'This is a great honor to sign this.' Trump's pardons included a group of protesters convicted of forcing their way into an abortion clinic in the Washington, D.C., area and blockading the entrance in 2020. Protesters livestreamed the blockade on social media for several hours before they were arrested. Abortion clinics have expressed concern that the pardons will spark an uptick in protests and threats of violence towards patients and workers. In late January, the president reinstated a controversial policy that bars U.S. foreign aid recipients from discussing abortion. The Mexico City Policy, introduced during the second Reagan administration, has been rescinded by every Democratic president and subsequently reinstated by every Republican president since then. Trump previously restored the policy four days into his first term, and former President Biden rescinded it a week into his own four years later. Supporters of the policy argue that it prevents American taxpayer money from being spent on abortions overseas. But opponents of the policy, who refer to it as the 'global gag rule' due to the restrictions it places on what reproductive health providers can talk about with patients, say there is already legislation in place that prevents this from happening. They contend that Trump reinstating the policy will weaken access to abortion care across the globe. In March, the Trump administration dropped a lawsuit filed by the Biden-era Justice Department that sought to protect the right to an emergency abortion in Idaho, where the procedure is severely restricted. After the 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade, an Idaho 'trigger ban' on abortion went into effect that made performing or assisting in an abortion a crime punishable by up to five years in prison. The Biden administration then sued the state, arguing the ban made it impossible for emergency room doctors to provide emergency abortions to patients under their care and violated a federal law called the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act. Under the law, hospitals are required to provide immediate and life-saving stabilizing treatment for patients with emergency medical conditions. Last year, the Supreme Court returned the case to a lower court, which temporarily paused Idaho's abortion ban. But by dropping the case, the Trump administration paved the way for the state's abortion ban to be reinstated. Abortion rights advocates said the administration's decision put the lives of pregnant women at risk. Meanwhile, some anti-abortion groups praised the Justice Department for dropping the case. The Trump administration earlier this year froze millions of dollars of federal funding intended to enable Americans to access birth control, cancer screenings and reproductive health care. The funding had been allocated under Title X, the U.S.'s only federal program solely aimed at providing affordable birth control and reproductive health care to low-income Americans. The program has been around since the 1970s and supported 4,000 clinics serving close to 2.8 million people in 2023 alone, according to the health advocacy nonprofit KFF. At least nine Planned Parenthood affiliates received notices about the program's funding being withheld beginning April 1. The first Trump administration similarly restricted Title X funding, issuing a rule in 2019 that barred reproductive health providers from receiving funds under the program if they mentioned abortion or referred patients for abortions. Planned Parenthood left the program because of the rule and reentered in 2021 after the Biden administration reversed it. While freezing funds to some recipients, the president's second administration has also restored some Title X funding to two state health programs that were kicked out of the program under Biden for failing to comply with some of its rules. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
