The U.S. said it would burn $9.7 million of birth control. Its fate is still unclear

September 16, 2025
By Rachel Treisman

For months, $9.7 million worth of birth control meant for women in low-income countries has sat stranded in a Belgian warehouse — apparently destined for destruction — as a result of the Trump administration's freeze on foreign aid.

…Humanitarians' hopes were seemingly dashed last week, when the New York Times, citing a statement from USAID, reported that the contraceptives had been destroyed. But the next day, it later reported, Belgian authorities entered the warehouse and confirmed the contraceptives were still there.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/sections/goats-and-soda/2025/09/16/nx-s1-5511304/birth-control-foreign-aid-destruction-belgium-warehouse

Trump administration to destroy nearly $10m of contraceptives for women overseas

As part of president’s end to foreign aid, destruction of the long-acting contraceptives will cost US taxpayers $167,000

Carter Sherman
Fri 18 Jul 2025

The Trump administration has decided to destroy $9.7m worth of contraceptives rather than send them abroad to women in need.

A state department spokesperson confirmed that the decision had been made – a move that will cost US taxpayers $167,000. 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. 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.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/18/trump-administration-destroy-contraceptives-usaid-africa

18.07.2025

News

Donald Trump

foreign aid for contraception

Jeanne Shaheen

Marco Rubio

MSI Reproductive Choices

Sarah Shaw

U.S. Agency for International Development

USAID’s reproductive health funding has saved millions of lives. Now it’s gone.

For decades, USAID’s family planning program was the main source for contraception and HIV treatment in some countries. Experts say without it, women and LGBTQ+ people will die.

Jessica Kutz
February 7, 2025

On Sunday, Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, boasted that he was gutting the federal agency tasked with providing foreign aid to its poorest. “We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper,” Musk, the tech billionaire head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, posted on his social media platform, X.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was established in 1961 to provide foreign assistance to impoverished countries around the world through food aid and humanitarian and economic development work. It is also one of the world’s largest providers of contraception through its family planning program. According to the Congressional Research Service, the agency’s funding in 2023 was about $40 billion, which represented less than 1 percent of the federal budget.

Continued: https://19thnews.org/2025/02/usaid-women-lgbtq-reproductive-health-funding-pause/

Trump 2.0 instills fear in African abortion activists

Nita Bhalla
Jan 27, 2025

NAIROBI - African health activists fear a new crackdown on abortion across Africa after President Donald Trump reinstated an anti-abortion pact that cuts off U.S. funds to foreign charities that provide or promote abortions.

When Trump signed the Mexico City Policy, or "global gag rule", during his first term some African charities were forced to close, denying women safe abortions. It also emboldened local opposition to women's reproductive choice.

Continued: https://www.context.news/socioeconomic-inclusion/trump-20-instills-fear-in-african-abortion-activists

Trump signs anti-abortion policies after speaking to March for Life

Those impacted include overseas health organizations that distribute contraception and help combat HIV.

By Alice Miranda Ollstein and Carmen Paun
01/24/2025

President Donald Trump’s campaign-trail promise to leave abortion regulation to the states lasted just a few days into his presidency.

He issued executive orders on Friday that revive some anti-abortion policies from his first administration — including restrictions on federal funding for family planning and other health programs abroad that discuss abortion as an option or provide referrals for the procedure.

Continued: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/01/24/trump-issues-executive-orders-reviving-anti-abortion-policies-00200212

Trump administration takes first anti-abortion move on world stage

Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a directive Friday to rejoin a global anti-abortion pact.

By Robbie Gramer and Carmen Paun
01/24/2025

The Trump administration plans to rejoin an international anti-abortion pact alongside countries such as Uganda, Saudi Arabia and Belarus, taking its first formal step to roll back Biden-era global health policies and previewing an expected strategy of seeking to curtail abortion access for millions of women and girls worldwide.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio instructed the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in a confidential diplomatic cable issued Friday to notify countries that it plans to re-join the so-called Geneva Consensus Declaration. POLITICO obtained a copy of the document.

Continued: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/01/24/trump-administration-anti-abortion-00200587

24.01.2025

News

Donald Trump

Geneva Consensus Declaration

JD Vance

Marco Rubio

U.S. Mission to the United Nations

What to expect from Trump 2.0: The anti-rights brigade are now in power

We're hurtling into a dark period for abortion rights and beyond. Get out your flashlights

Dr Anu Kumar
20 January 2025

With Trump 2.0, the US enters a new era – one where people’s rights, particularly those of women and girls, LGBTQIA+ people, Black or brown people, or immigrants, are ignored, or worse, violated. Climate change is not a concern. Disinformation is rampant. Reproductive freedom, particularly the access to abortion, is radically curtailed, despite broad voter support.

Most of us are familiar with (and frankly, are already experiencing) the Project 2025 playbook, which calls for dismantling democratic norms in the US, unitary executive power, harsh Christian nationalism, a punitive approach to foreign assistance and multilateralism, and violations of human rights. We're hurtling into a dark period. Get out your flashlights.

Continued: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/trump-project-2025-abortion-rights-inauguration/

Fellowship opens door to comprehensive abortion access coverage in U.S., France

Lara Salahi
December 2, 2024

Ariel Cohen, a health policy reporter for CQ Roll Call, recently completed a comprehensive series of six stories examining abortion care policies in the United States and France. This in-depth reporting project, made possible through AHCJ’s International Health Study Fellowship, allowed Cohen to spend two weeks in France, comparing and contrasting the abortion policies and practices of both nations.

Her work comes at a critical time, as the U.S. grapples with the aftermath of the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, while France moves to enshrine abortion rights in its constitution.

Continued: https://healthjournalism.org/blog/2024/12/fellowship-opens-door-to-comprehensive-abortion-access-coverage-in-u-s-france/

02.12.2024

Interviews/Podcasts

Ariel Cohen

Association of Health Care Journalists

CQ Roll Call

International Health Study Fellowship

THE FBI IS HUNTING A NEW DOMESTIC TERROR THREAT: ABORTION RIGHTS ACTIVISTS

After GOP pressure, FBI abortion “terrorism” investigations increased tenfold, government data shows.

Ken Klippenstein
June 15 2023

FOLLOWING A CONCERTED effort by Republicans to pressure law enforcement agencies to target activists supporting the right to abortion, the FBI dramatically increased its caseload on abortion-related “domestic terrorism.”

Last year, as the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade sparked major protests nationwide, the FBI opened nearly 10 times as many investigations into cases of abortion-related domestic terrorism as it had in 2021, a new internal report reveals. While the report doesn’t say how many of these incidents were motivated by support for reproductive rights and how many were anti-abortion, the uptick follows calls by top Republicans in Congress for the bureau to pursue “pro-abortion terrorism.”

Continued: https://theintercept.com/2023/06/15/fbi-abortion-domestic-terrorism/

15.06.2023

anti-choice arson

anti-choice assassinations

anti-choice terrorism

NARAL Pro-Choice California

USA – It’s Both Difficult and Incredibly Important to Make the Case for Third-Trimester Abortions

It’s Both Difficult and Incredibly Important to Make the Case for Third-Trimester Abortions

By Christina Cauterucci
Feb 01, 2019

Conservative politicians and right-wing activists have targeted a Virginia state legislator this week and in the process reignited a nationwide debate about third-trimester abortions. Delegate Kathy Tran’s bill, which was tabled by a House of Delegates subcommittee this week, would have loosened some restrictions on second- and third-trimester abortions, which are legal in the state under specific circumstances. Though the legislation has been proposed in previous sessions—and though it never made it to the House floor for a vote this go-round—anti-abortion advocates are using it to paint pro-choice Democrats as supporters of, as Sen. Marco Rubio put it in a tweet, “legal infanticide.”

Continued: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/02/virginia-abortion-third-trimester-law-kathy-tran.html