Botching a Bad Plan on Contraceptives
Terry H. Schwadron
Sept. 13, 2025
A cruel, inane, politics-driven Trump administration plan to destroy a warehouse full of still-good contraceptives has become a bad joke.
Even as it pressures Congress anew about budgets, the Trump administration said it was spending $167,000 to destroy $10 million worth of birth control pills and contraceptives already purchased as part of foreign aid programs — over abortion politics. The order falsely suggested that contraceptives induce abortion, and so they wanted a warehouse-sized consignment burned.
But even as Trump officials were confirming stuffily that the deed had been done in the name of morality, it turned out no one ever lit the incinerator. As of Friday, the stored contraceptives were still intact, under the watchful eye of Belgian officials who had wanted to still distribute them where they were originally intended to go.
The embarrassment came to light when The New York Times reported this week on memos it had obtained from the government about to move ahead rapidly to pay a sizeable sum to burn already approved and purchase birth control pills, IUDs and hormonal implant valued at $9.7 million. Officials in Belgium saw the coverage and went to the warehouse — to find that the pills were still there.
It now means the U.S. officials will have to ask Belgium anew for permission to incinerate the goods, permission that may not be forthcoming.
This case has been going on in one form or another since the start of the Trump term when Elon Musk’s DOGE effort targeted USAID for elimination, and Team Trump has burned or dumped food and goods intended to help people in faraway places. That has ended up in the courts, and the destruction of family planning aids was ordered as part of the shutdown.
Instead of a bad policy move and worse health impacts, we have a government that can’t even figure out if they have done what they claim to have done — whether in vaccines, foreign aid or emergency help. Maybe it’s like disappearing crime overnight — as long as no one checks.
Abortion Politics at Heart
Here was the official justification from what remains of USAID, which is being shut down by Trump’s Office of Management and Budget: “President Trump is committed to protecting the lives of unborn children all around the world. The administration will no longer supply abortifacient birth control under the guise of foreign aid.”
An abortifacient — I had to look it up — is any drug, chemical, or substance that induces an abortion by terminating a pregnancy; federal law says USAID cannot distribute abortifacients.
Of course, contraceptives stop pregnancy by preventing ovulation or fertilization. They are not abortion meds. And they were being held in a warehouse in Belgium while court cases continue about orders to close USAID.
In June, Jeremy Lewin, the State Department official in charge of foreign assistance, humanitarian affairs and religious freedom, told employees to arrange destruction of the contraceptives as “the cheapest option that best reflects the administration’s significant concerns with funding these activities.”
But the Belgian government lobbied to prevent the contraceptives from being incinerated at a medical waste facility. In Flanders, where the warehouse is, local authorities had sought a legal ban on incinerating still-usable medical supplies, but the U.S. State Department said on July 31 that it was determining a way forward.
Ignoring Buyers
Apparently, seven different organizations, including the United Nations Population Fund, were willing to take charge of some or all the products, and to cover the costs of storing, shipping and distributing them — to no avail.
Reporting by journalists found documents that show it was the decision of political appointees, not those involved in distribution of aid or the search for a buyer of the contraceptives. A memo said that the materials be destroyed “due to the absence of eligible buyers” and to avoid contravening an administration directive “halting support to organizations involved in coercive reproductive practices.”
Given the preoccupation of this administration to cut federal costs and foreign aid — even at the cost of denying food to starving populations in faraway places — the idea that we are spending new money to destroy material already warehoused says that it is anti-abortion ideology that is preeminent — however scientifically incorrect in this instance.
The professionals who work in these areas already are saying that destruction of contraceptives will result in economic woe and, in many cases, death from lack of accompanying medical services in Third World countries. The idea of helping the world control population growth has been a standard for decades across many countries.
Would we be surprised if this administration starts moving against contraceptives within the United States? Would we be more surprised if something happens the way Team Trump says it will?
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