The US government's decision to incinerate over $9.7m worth of contraceptives is projected to cause 174,000 unintended pregnancies and 56,000 unsafe abortions in five African countries, according to the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF). The contraceptives, many with expiry dates between 2027 and 2029, had already been manufactured and packaged for distribution.
More than three-quarters of the supplies were destined for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Mali. IPPF offered to redistribute them at no cost to US taxpayers, but the offer was declined. The destruction will deny over 1.4 million women and girls access to reproductive care, IPPF said.
Marie Evelyne Petrus-Barry, IPPF's Africa regional director, called the decision 'appalling and extremely wasteful'. She noted that the supplies were intended for countries where access to reproductive care is already limited, including humanitarian settings like the DRC. In Tanzania, over 1 million injectable contraceptives and 365,100 implants will not be distributed, representing 28% of the country's annual need.
Dr Bakari, a project coordinator at Umati in Tanzania, said USAID funding cuts have already caused shortages of contraceptive commodities, particularly implants, directly impacting clients' family planning choices. In Mali, women will lose access to 1.2 million oral contraceptives and 95,800 implants, nearly a quarter of the annual need. Zambia will see shortages of 48,400 implants and 295,000 injectables, while 108,000 women in Kenya will lack contraceptive implants.
Nelly Munyasia, executive director of the Reproductive Health Network in Kenya, said stockpiles of long-term contraceptives have run out, health worker skills are being reduced, and there is a 46% funding gap in Kenya's national family planning programme. 'Nearly one in five girls aged 15 to 19 are already pregnant or has given birth. Unsafe abortions remain among the five leading causes of maternal deaths in Kenya,' she said.
A US State Department spokesperson confirmed the decision, citing US laws that prohibit sending aid to organisations that provide abortion services or advocate for abortion rights overseas. The French government said it is 'following the situation closely' after reports that the contraceptives were to be incinerated in France.
