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contraception
'Callous Waste': Doctors Without Borders Condemns Trump Plan to Destroy $9.7 Million Worth of Contraceptives
The CEO of Doctors Without Borders USA accused the Trump administration of being "willing to burn birth control and let food supplies rot... to push a political agenda."
Jul 24, 2025
International humanitarian assistance organization Doctors Without Borders on Thursday hammered the Trump administration's plan to destroy nearly $10 million of contraceptives that are badly needed throughout the world.
As The Guardian reported late last week, the Trump administration has decided to destroy $9.7 million worth of contraceptives that had been set to be delivered overseas as part of the foreign aid programs that it has been working to shut down.
"The contraceptives are primarily long-acting, such as IUDs and birth control implants, and were almost certainly intended for women in Africa, according to two senior congressional aides, one of whom visited a warehouse in Belgium that housed the contraceptives," wrote The Guardian. "It is not clear to the aides whether the destruction has already been carried out, but said they had been told that it was set to occur by the end of July."
In a statement condemning the decision, Doctors Without Borders described the Trump administration's actions as "callous waste that puts the health and lives of women and girls at risk."
"Contraceptives are essential and lifesaving health products," Avril Benoît, CEO of Doctors Without Borders USA, said. "[Doctors Without Borders] has seen firsthand the positive health benefits when women and girls can freely make their own health decisions by choosing to prevent or delay pregnancy—and the dangerous consequences when they cannot. The U.S. government's decision to incinerate millions of dollars' worth of contraceptives is an intentionally reckless and harmful act against women and girls everywhere."
Benoît accused the U.S. government of "manufacturing" the crisis by showing itself "willing to burn birth control and let food supplies rot, risking people's health and lives to push a political agenda."
The destruction of the contraceptives is part of the Trump administration's efforts to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), an agency established in 1961 under President John Kennedy that was intended to build American diplomatic power and goodwill across the world during the Cold War with the Soviet Union.
The decision to wind down USAID and other foreign aid programs has already had dire humanitarian consequences around the world.
A recent report from UNAIDS, the United Nations agency dedicated to combating the spread of HIV around the globe, warned that the Trump administration's drastic reduction of foreign aid funding to the United States President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has been a "systemic shock" to organizations trying to stop the spread of HIV. The report estimates that if American funding for HIV prevention collapses entirely, it would result in 6 million additional infections and 4 million additional deaths over the next four years alone.
"This is not just a funding gap—it's a ticking time bomb," said Winnie Byanyima, executive director of UNAIDS. "We have seen services vanish overnight. Health workers have been sent home. And people—especially children and key populations—are being pushed out of care."
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Dem Lawmakers Introduce 'Contraception Begins at Erection' Bills in Multiple States
"If you think it's absurd to regulate men, then you should think it's equally absurd to regulate women," said the author of an Ohio bill, who is also an OB-GYN.
Feb 11, 2025
Faced with relentless Republican attacks on reproductive freedom including efforts to give embryos and fetuses legal rights from the moment of conception, Democratic lawmakers in two states have recently introduced legislation that would ban men from ejaculating for purposes other than making babies, with some exceptions.
Last month, Mississippi state Sen. Bradford Blackmon (D-21) introduced S.B. 2319, the Contraception Begins at Erection Act, which would "make it unlawful for a person to discharge genetic material (sperm) without the intent to fertilize an embryo, effectively criminalizing certain male reproductive behaviors," according to an official artificial intelligence summary of the proposal. The bill—which died in committee last week—contains exceptions for "genetic material donated or sold to a facility for future embryo fertilization, and genetic material discharged using a contraceptive method intended to prevent fertilization."
"If you're going to penalize someone for an unwanted pregnancy, why not penalize the person who is also responsible for the pregnancy?"
"All across the country, especially here in Mississippi, the vast majority of bills relating to contraception and/or abortion focus on the woman's role when men are 50% of the equation," Blackmon explained, according to NBC News. "This bill highlights that fact and brings the man's role into the conversation. People can get up in arms and call it absurd but I can't say that bothers me."
Meanwhile in Ohio, state Reps. Dr. Anita Somani (D-11) and Tristan Rader (D-13) have introduced their own Contraception Begins at Erection Act, which would fine violators $10,000 per unauthorized discharge, with exceptions for when contraception is used during sex, or in cases of masturbation, and sex between members of the LGBTQ+ community.
"If you're going to penalize someone for an unwanted pregnancy, why not penalize the person who is also responsible for the pregnancy?" Somani, who is also a licensed OB-GYN, asked in an Ohio Capital Journal article published Sunday. "You don't get pregnant on your own."
Every Sperm is sacred! #equalrights #reproductiverights
[image or embed]
— Anita Somani District 8 OH ( @anitamd.bsky.social) February 4, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Responding to Republicans who have called her bill "absurd," Somani said, "If you think it's absurd to regulate men, then you should think it's equally absurd to regulate women."
While observers have questioned the seriousness of these bills—and with Somani and others giving nods to a famous number in Monty Python's 1983 black comedy The Meaning of Life—they come at a nadir for reproductive freedom in the United States.
Since the right-wing U.S. Supreme Court canceled half a century of federal abortion rights in the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization ruling, a dozen states including Mississippi have also passed near-total abortion bans, while numerous other states have enacted restrictions on the procedure.
Eight states have also enacted or proposed restrictions on access to contraception, according to the Guttmacher Institute. Last year, Senate Republicans blocked consideration of the Right to Contraception Act. Republican President Donald Trump has signaled support for federal restrictions on contraception, and far-right U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has suggested that the tribunal "should reconsider" past rulings upholding the right to birth control.
In Ohio, voters decisively enshrined abortion rights in the state constitution via a 2023 ballot measure. Nevertheless, anti-abortion activists haven't given up—Republican activist Austin Beigel told the Capital Journal that GOP lawmakers are preparing to introduce legislation for a total abortion ban in the coming weeks.
"It just says human life begins at conception," he explained. "Therefore, all the protections that are offered to other people under the state law are also offered to the pre-born."
This isn't the first time that semi-satirical legislation has been introduced to highlight the hypocrisy of banning women from controlling their bodies. In 2019, a Democratic state lawmaker in Georgia introduced a "Testicular Bill of Rights" that would, among other things, have required men to get permission from their sexual partners before obtaining erectile dysfunction medication and enacted a 24-hour "waiting period" for men who want to buy porn or sex toys.
Correction: This article orginially said the "Every Sperm Is Sacred" song is from Monty Python's 1979 dark comedy The Life Of Brian. It is, in fact, from the 1983 Monty Python film The Meaning of Life. The author—who still considers The Holy Grail the finest comedy ever made—apologizes for the error.
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Underscoring Election Stakes, Biden Admin Moves to Require Coverage of OTC Birth Control
"As Trump and his radical Republican allies restrict women's reproductive healthcare, today's action by the Biden-Harris administration shows there is a different path," said Sen. Ron Wyden.
Oct 21, 2024
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, suggested Monday that the Biden administration's newly proposed rule to expand access to over-the-counter birth control is the latest policy that underscores the stakes for reproductive justice in the 2024 election.
"While we fight to protect and expand healthcare, extremist so-called leaders are attacking reproductive freedom at every turn," said Harris.
The vice president was referring to a new rule under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) proposed by the administration to require insurers to cover all over-the-counter birth control, including the nonprescription birth control pill approved last year, emergency contraception, condoms, and spermicides.
The ACA requires health plans to cover contraception without copayments for patients, but the rule only applies to prescription birth control.
After the Food and Drug Administration approved Opill, a nonprescription birth control pill, last year, reproductive rights advocates and Democrats in Congress called on the Biden administration to make sure the pill would "meet its potential and be truly accessible."
"Federal departments must ensure that it is covered without cost-sharing and without the need for a prescription as a condition of coverage," said 48 Senate Democrats in a letter.
The Biden administration said that if the rule is finalized, it would expand access to 52 million women of reproductive age who have private health insurance.
"We should not forget that Republicans have consistently sought to undermine access to contraception and far-right extremists have even sought to limit access or even ban basic forms of contraception—this threat to our healthcare is real and serious."
"Birth control—and any kind of contraception—is just basic healthcare, and it should be covered and easy to get," said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who authored the Affordability Is Access Act to require insurers to fully cover over-the-counter birth control. "Women in America should not have to jump through hoops to make sure insurance is covering their basic reproductive healthcare needs."
"We should not forget that Republicans have consistently sought to undermine access to contraception and far-right extremists have even sought to limit access or even ban basic forms of contraception—this threat to our healthcare is real and serious," added Murray. "While Republicans continue to attack standard and necessary forms of healthcare, Democrats will continue to fight to expand access to contraception and lower healthcare costs for everyone."
When Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022 by the right-wing majority on the U.S. Supreme Court—stacked with justices appointed by former President Donald Trump, now the Republican presidential nominee—Justice Clarence Thomas said the court's finding that the "right to privacy" did not extend to abortion care could also be used to overturn a 1965 case that affirmed married couples had a right to use contraception.
Senate Republicans earlier this year blocked consideration of the Right to Contraception Act, and Trump has suggested he supports restrictions on birth control.
"As Trump and his radical Republican allies restrict women's reproductive healthcare, today's action by the Biden-Harris administration shows there is a different path: expanded access and lower costs for women's healthcare," said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) Monday. "I'm all in on the effort to ensure Americans across the country can get the reproductive healthcare they need without worrying about cost or prosecution by ideological crusaders."
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