Pressure is building on both sides of the Atlantic to stop the destruction of a huge stockpile of US-owned contraceptives which has been sitting in a Belgian warehouse since the start of the year.
Around $9.7million (€8.36 million) worth of family planning supplies, including 26 million condoms and hundreds of thousands of birth control implants, are currently sitting in a warehouse in Geel, Flanders. Another portion of the stockpile is being held in the United Arab Emirates.
The contraceptives were bought by USAID, the US Agency for International Cooperation and Development, which was officially shut down by the Trump administration last month. The administration has also cancelled funding for overseas reproductive health programmes.
Last month, a US state department spokesperson confirmed to the Guardian that the US government had decided to destroy the contraceptives – at a cost of $167,000 (€144,000) - rather than send them abroad.
According to a bipartisan letter of protest to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio from US senators Jeanne Shaheen and Lisa Murkowski, the supplies were intended to be shipped to women in war zones and refugee camps.
Belgian diplomats confirmed to Belga News Agency that the federal government is negotiating with US authorities to prevent the destruction of the contraceptives.
"As soon as we were informed of the possible destruction of stockpiles of contraceptives in Geel, we initiated diplomatic démarches," said Florinda Baleci, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
'A wasteful attack on women’s rights'
According to Belga, many of the products are already close to their expiration date, so it is a “race against time” to ensure they are saved.
One of the options being explored by Belgian diplomats is temporarily storing the contraceptives elsewhere. However, there are reports in the French media that they may soon be transferred to France for incineration.
In France, the news has been met with a fierce backlash. On Wednesday, a petition was launched to prevent the destruction of the supplies. French feminists and family planning organisations have called it a “wasteful attack on women’s rights”.
A French diplomatic source told RFI that France “firmly supports the Belgian authorities’ desire to find a solution to avoid the destruction of the contraceptives” and is “following the situation closely”.
