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US says it destroyed $10M of contraception - Belgium says the US didn't: The lies are endless [1]
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Date: 2025-09-13
On Thursday, the New York Times ran a story headlined: “$10 Million in Contraceptives Have Been Destroyed on Orders From Trump Officials.” A subhead gave some details.
The birth control pills, IUDs and hormonal implants were purchased by U.S.A.I.D. for women in low-income countries. They had been in limbo in a Belgian warehouse after the U.S. cut much of its foreign aid.
On Friday, the NYT ran another story , this one headlined “Belgian Authorities Say $10 Million Supply of Birth Control Has Not Yet Been Destroyed.” A subhead provided more information.
Contraceptives bought by U.S.A.I.D. have been in limbo in a Belgian warehouse. The U.S. government said the products were destroyed, but local authorities found them.
After the reader wonders if anyone in Trump’s administration has a clue, they might also ask, “Why is the administration destroying already paid-for supplies?” The answer is predictable — ignorance and zealotry.
The administration does what Trump says. Trump says what Christian fundamentalists want him to. And those predatory fanatics think anything preventing a woman from getting pregnant is a threat to the patriarchy. Therefore, when it turned out that Joe Biden’s USAID had bought $9.7M birth control pills, IUDs, and hormonal implants for women trying to improve their economic outlook in low-income countries, they scheduled the lot for destruction.
Their grounds? They said these contraceptives were abortifacients. That was a lie. An abortifacient acts on a fertilized egg or a subsequent embryo or fetus. The devices and hormones USAID bought prevent eggs from being fertilized. On top of that, existing law prevented USAID from buying or supplying abortifacients. Sadly, neither logic nor legislation deters the monomaniac.
In addition, the State Department said that contraception was not “lifesaving” and that the US would no longer buy birth control products for low-income nations. Fair enough. If you are elected, you get to set executive policy until a new administration is elected. However, why not do a DOGE on the expense and try to recoup some or all of the taxpayers’ money?
The NYT reported:
Internal State Department and U.S.A.I.D. documents and correspondence obtained by The New York Times show that several international organizations, including the Gates Foundation and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, had offered to buy or accept a donation of the contraceptives. The government would have incurred no costs or might have even been able to recoup taxpayer funds under those scenarios.
The administration proved that its cost-cutting enthusiasm was not fiscal prudence, but rather sadism, by choosing to spend a further $167,000 to destroy functional and legal products that would have helped some have-nots.
On Thursday, a spokeswoman for USAID — which is now being wound down by Russell Vought, the head of the White House Office of Management and Budget — said in a statement to The Times that the contraceptives had been destroyed, and falsely suggested that they induced abortion.
That was not the only false suggestion. On Friday, the NYT reported:
The Trump administration told The New York Times on Thursday that it had destroyed millions of dollars’ worth of birth control pills and other contraceptives destined for people in low-income countries. But when the authorities in Belgium, responding to the report in The Times, obtained authorization to enter the warehouse that had been holding the supplies on Friday morning, the stockpile was still there, an official in the Flanders region said. Local authorities “carried out on-site inspections this morning and found that no cargoes had been diverted for incineration,” said Tom Demeyer, a spokesman for the Flemish minister with jurisdiction over the issue.
In summary, the administration lied about a product so they could destroy it. They turned away free money so they could destroy it. They planned to spend money to destroy it. They announced they had destroyed it. And yet they hadn’t destroyed it.
Can anyone in the Trump administration tell the truth?
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