Latest news with #Geel
Yahoo
a day ago
- Health
- Yahoo
European stockpile of USAID-funded contraceptives faces destruction
Millions of dollars' worth of US-funded contraceptives which have been sitting in storage for months in a Belgian warehouse face destruction amid a controversy over whether they can be spared for distribution to the needy. The stash is reported to include more than 50,000 intrauterine devices, nearly two million doses of injectable contraceptives, and more than two million packets of oral birth control, and is being kept in the small city of Geel near Antwerp. The contraceptive products were originally intended for distribution to lower-income countries by the now dismantled United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Following the dissolution of USAID - whose aim was to improve health, reduce poverty, and promote human rights and democracy in low-income nations - many international projects and partnerships have been abandoned. The US government's current plan for the contraceptives left in limbo in Geel is to incinerate them—despite their expiration date being between 2027 and 2031. This isn't the first time the American government has opted for such a drastic solution. After budget cuts, food rations capable of feeding 3.5 million people for a month were reportedly left to rot in warehouses around the world, as documented by Reuters. The decision to destroy the contraceptive supplies has drawn sharp criticism from civil society groups. 'It's the height of hypocrisy for a government to preach efficiency and cutting waste, only to turn around and recklessly destroy life-saving supplies when the need has never been greater. This isn't just inefficient — it's unconscionable,' said Micah Grzywnowicz, regional director of International Planned Parenthood Federation's European network. IPPF publicly offered to collect the supplies from Geel, repackage them in its warehouse in the Netherlands, and distribute them to women in need across the globe, 'all at no cost to the US government', according to Grzywnowicz. Several other organisations, including the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the global charity MSI Reproductive Choices, have also expressed willingness to purchase or redistribute the stockpiles. All offers have reportedly been rejected by the Trump administration. The Belgian government also confirmed to Euronews it is in contact with the US embassy in Brussels. 'The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is exploring all possible avenues to prevent the destruction of these stocks, including their temporary relocation,' a spokesperson told Euronews. As the supplies are reportedly set to be removed to France for destruction, politicians from the French Green Party, Les Écologistes, have appealed to President Emmanuel Macron to intervene. 'We cannot allow Donald Trump's anti-choice agenda to unfold on our territory. And so today, France must mediate with the Commission,' MEP Mélissa Camara (France/The Greens), one of the signatories of the letter, told Euronews. She added that the destruction of these contraceptives would endanger women around the world, especially in Africa, the original destination of the supplies. Camara has also addressed a separate letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and other members of the Commission, including Commissioner Hadja Lahbib, whose portfolio includes sexual and reproductive health and rights. A spokesperson told Euronews that the European Commission had 'taken note of the letters and acknowledge the concerns raised'. They added that the EU remains strongly committed to promoting sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), including family planning, and that investment in SRHR is a key contributor to social and economic development. 'We continue to monitor the situation closely to explore the most effective solutions,' the spokesperson said.
The Independent
2 days ago
- Health
- The Independent
The Trump administration has just sent $10m worth of birth control to be burnt – rather than donate it as aid
A stock of $9.7m (£7.2m) worth of contraceptives, purchased by the US for use in low-income countries is now in transit to France to be burnt rather than distributed as aid. Governments and family planning providers in France and Belgium – where the items were held in a warehouse – have been scrambling to block the US from destroying the supplies. The products, which include contraceptive pills, implants and IUDs (intrauterine devices or coils) and have already been paid for by US taxpayers, are being sent to a specialist facility to be incinerated, at an additional cost of $167,000 (£124,000). That's despite offers from charities including MSI Reproductive Choices and the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) to take on the costs of donating the contraception. The Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs had also said it was, 'exploring all possible avenues to prevent the destruction of these stocks, including their temporary relocation.' A ministry spokesperson said the department had acted as soon as the plans to destroy stocks of contraception, held in Geel in the north of the country, came to its attention - including sending formal diplomatic representations to the US embassy. French member of parliament Soumya Bourouaha asked in an official question on Monday for the prime minister to, 'do everything possible to save these contraceptive stocks and deliver them to the populations who need them'. However, the negotiations faltered, The Independent understands. The supplies are understood to now be in the process of being transferred between the two countries. Access to contraception can be life-saving: unintended pregnancies in countries with high maternal mortality and no access to safe abortion can be a death sentence. Research by the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive rights research group, has found roughly the $600m spent on family planning overseas by the US government in 2024 prevented 34,000 maternal deaths and over five million unsafe abortions. The contraception was purchased under a contract managed by development firm Chemonics, which has been partly cancelled as part of the Donald Trump 's deep cuts to foreign aid. Chemonics said it was unable to comment on the programme. Two family planning charities said they had been told by representatives of the project that the destruction of contraceptives was part of an effort to save money, despite the fact the supplies have already been paid for. Marcel Van Valen, IPPF's head of supply chain said the argument that the destruction of these products would come in at a lower cost was, 'utter nonsense' adding that the charity had offered to ' go and collect the products, to repack them [at] our cost and to do the distribution throughout the globe with our partners and even competitors in this space'. MSI's associate advocacy director Sarah Shaw said, 'This isn't about government efficiencies. This is about exporting an ideology that's harmful to women.' To give one example, she said, 'the annual contraceptive bill for Senegal for the entire country is $3 million dollars a year. So the contents of that warehouse could have met all of Senegal's contraceptive needs for three years. And instead we're going to see massive shortages. 'We're going to see Senegalese women dying of unsafe abortion, girls having to drop out of school'. A bill has been introduced by Democratic senators Jeanne Shaheen and Brian Schatz to prevent the destruction of the $9.7 of contraceptives specifically, as well as other medicines and food. It's not expected to pass however, as it would need Republican support. IPPF had previously raised concerns that an additional $2 million worth of condoms housed in a warehouse in Dubai were also in line to be destroyed. These were purchased under the HIV programme the President's Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar). A State Department spokesperson described the birth control currently earmarked for destruction as 'abortifacient', and said it did not include condoms. They added that the Mexico City Policy, also known as the Global Gag Rule - first introduced in 1984 and brought back in by every Republican president since - prohibits providing assistance to foreign nongovernmental organizations that perform or promote abortion. It's not clear what the administration means by birth control that is abortifacient (an agent that causes abortions). A Democratic congressional aide whose team has visited the warehouse told The Independent their team who had visited the Belgian warehouse had seen only contraceptives, not abortion pills. The stocks they had seen were not approaching their expiry date. 'Contraceptives are saving tons of women from things like pregnancy after sexual assault or rape and saving abortions too,' the aide said. 'It's just not true that mifepristone or any of these abortion pills are in these warehouses. That's completely false.' In the past, conservative and religious groups in the US have falsely claimed contraceptives count as abortion agents. Dr Janet Barter, president of UK clinical membership body the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare, explained an abortion was defined by when, 'there is a pregnancy and the abortion tablets or medications cause that pregnancy to be lost.' On the other hand, 'when contraception is used properly, there is no pregnancy. 'It's very straightforward with pills, implants, injections. They all work by stopping you from producing an egg. If there is no egg, there is no pregnancy,' she said, while in the case of the copper coil, it largely works by killing sperm before an egg could be fertilised. While family planning has come into the firing line, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) pointed out this was the latest in a series of destructions including 500 tons of emergency food aid and almost 800,000 mpox vaccines which had been allowed to expire while active outbreaks rage. 'The US government manufactured this problem,' said Avril Benoît, CEO of MSF USA. 'Destroying valuable medical items that were already paid for by US taxpayers does nothing to combat waste or improve efficiency. This administration is willing to burn birth control and let food supplies rot, risking people's health and lives to push a political agenda.'
Russia Today
24-07-2025
- Health
- Russia Today
$10mn of USAID contraceptives to be burned in France
A $10 million shipment of US-funded contraceptives will be incinerated in France, after Washington rejected offers to send the supplies to poorer nations, Reuters reported on Wednesday. The stockpile – made up of birth control pills and implants – has been stuck in Belgium since early 2025, when President Donald Trump shut down USAID and froze foreign aid programs. The supplies were originally meant for distribution in developing countries. A State Department spokesperson confirmed the destruction plan, saying the disposal will cost around $167,000 and take place at a medical waste facility in France. The contraceptives are being stored in the city of Geel and will require dozens of truckloads and at least two weeks to move, sources told Reuters. Belgian authorities have attempted to prevent the destruction of the supplies yet ultimately failed to do so, having exhausted 'all possible options to prevent the destruction, including temporary relocation.' 'Despite these efforts, and with full respect for our partners, no viable alternative could be secured. Nevertheless, Belgium continues to actively seek solutions to avoid this regrettable outcome,' the country's Foreign Ministry said in a statement, adding that 'sexual and reproductive health must not be subject to ideological constraints.' Human rights groups that attempted to buy the supplies from Washington have also suggested the impending destruction is being driven by 'ideological' motives rather than a desire to cut costs. Sarah Shaw, Associate Director of Advocacy at MSI Reproductive Choices, told Reuters the NGO approached Washington with an offer to pay for repackaging of the supplies without USAID branding and for shipment to their destinations, but the proposal was declined. 'MSI offered to pay for repackaging, shipping, and import duties, but they were not open to that... We were told that the US government would only sell the supplies at the full market value,' said Shaw. 'This is clearly not about saving money. It feels more like an ideological assault on reproductive rights, and one that is already harming women,' she added. The UN sexual and reproductive health agency, UNFPA, also reportedly offered to buy the shipment. The talks ultimately broke down, partially due to a lack of response from the US government, a source with direct knowledge told Reuters.
RNZ News
23-07-2025
- Health
- RNZ News
US-funded contraceptives for poor nations to be burned in France, sources say
By Ammu Kannampilly , Jennifer Rigby and Jonathan Landay , Reuters The logistics warehouse in Geel, Belgium, where millions of condoms and other contraceptives have been stored by the US development agency USAID. Photo: LUC CLAESSEN / Belga / AFP US-funded contraceptives worth nearly $10 million are being sent to France from Belgium to be incinerated, after Washington rejected offers from the United Nations and family planning organisations to buy or ship the supplies to poor nations, two sources told Reuters. The supplies have been stuck for months in a warehouse in Geel, a city in the Belgian province of Antwerp, following President Donald Trump's decision to freeze US foreign aid in January. They comprise contraceptive implants and pills as well as intrauterine devices to help prevent unwanted pregnancies, according to seven sources and a screengrab shared by an eighth source confirming the planned destruction. The US government will spend $160,000 (about NZ$265,000) to incinerate the stocks at a facility in France that handles medical waste, according to four of the sources with knowledge of the matter, following Trump's decision to shut down the US Agency for International Development (USAID). The US State Department did not respond to a request for comment on the negotiations to save the contraceptives from destruction or the plans to incinerate them. US lawmakers have introduced two bills this month to prevent the destruction of the supplies but aid groups say the bills are unlikely to be passed in time to stop the incineration. The Belgian foreign ministry said Brussels had held talks with US authorities and "explored all possible options to prevent the destruction, including temporary relocation". "Despite these efforts, and with full respect for our partners, no viable alternative could be secured. Nevertheless, Belgium continues to actively seek solutions to avoid this regrettable outcome," it said in a statement shared with Reuters on Tuesday. "Sexual and reproductive health must not be subject to ideological constraints ," it added. The supplies, worth $9.7 million (NZ$16.07m), are due to expire between April 2027 and September 2031, according to an internal document listing the warehouse stocks and verified by three sources. Sarah Shaw, Associate Director of Advocacy at MSI Reproductive Choices, told Reuters the non-profit organisation had volunteered to pay for the supplies to be repackaged without USAID branding and shipped to countries in need, but the offer was declined by the US government. "MSI offered to pay for repackaging, shipping and import duties but they were not open to that... We were told that the US government would only sell the supplies at the full market value," said Shaw. She did not elaborate on how much the NGO was prepared to pay, but said she felt the rejection was based on the Trump's administration's more restrictive stance on abortion and family planning. "This is clearly not about saving money. It feels more like an ideological assault on reproductive rights, and one that is already harming women." She added that many countries in sub-Saharan Africa had relied on USAID for access to contraception and that the aid cuts would lead to a rise in unsafe abortions. The United Nations' sexual and reproductive health agency, UNFPA, also offered to buy the contraceptives outright, three sources told Reuters, without disclosing the financial terms of the proposal. However, negotiations broke down, a source with knowledge of the talks said, in part due to a lack of response from the US government. UNFPA declined to comment. One of the sources with knowledge of the issue said that the Trump administration was acting in accordance with the Mexico City policy, an anti-abortion pact in which Trump reinstated US participation in January. The pact forbids the US government from contributing to or working with organisations providing funding or supplies that offer access to abortions. The source said there was no way for the US government to ensure that UNFPA would not share the contraceptives with groups offering abortions, violating the Mexico City policy. The source also said the matter was complicated by the fact that the contraceptives in Belgium were embossed with the USAID trademark and Washington did not want any USAID-branded supplies to be rerouted elsewhere. UNFPA did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the concerns raised by the source. MSI, which says on its website that it fights for a future where everyone can access contraception and abortion, accused the State Department earlier this month of being "hellbent on destroying life-saving medical supplies, incurring additional costs for the US taxpayer in the process." The State Department declined to comment. Abortion is a divisive issue in US politics and was a major issue in the 2024 election won by Trump. In 2022, the US Supreme Court ruled to eliminate a nationwide right to abortion, leaving abortion laws to each of the 50 states. One of the two sources who told Reuters the stocks of contraceptives were being trucked to France said it would likely take dozens of truckloads and at least two weeks to move the supplies out of the Geel warehouse, with a third source also confirming the scale of the operation. The French government did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Chemonics, the contractor managing the supply chain for USAID's family planning programme, declined to comment on the plans to destroy the supplies. An internal USAID memo, sent in April, said a large quantity of contraceptives was being kept in warehouses and they should be "immediately transferred to another entity to prevent waste or additional costs". - Reuters
Vancouver Sun
02-07-2025
- Politics
- Vancouver Sun
On Canada Day, Gitxsan Nation reflects on responsible land development
On July 1, Gitxsan hereditary Chief Simoogit Geel is thinking about the land, and about Ayook , the Gitxsan system of laws governing their people's relationship with each other and with the land. The chief, also known as Catherine Blackstock, is thinking about the health of her Wilp, or house, and the salmon, the forests, the minerals and wildlife on her nation's ancestral territories. She is also thinking of the recent provincial decision to allow the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission pipeline to go ahead without renewing its expired environmental certificate or requiring consultation with First Nations. Start your day with a roundup of B.C.-focused news and opinion. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sunrise will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. The proposed pipeline would transport natural gas from northeastern B.C. to a liquefied natural gas facility on the west coast, cutting through 50 kilometres of Gitanyow territory. Although an agreement with the Gitxsan nations has been in place since 2013, the American-backed project has raised controversy and legal challenges over its environmental impact. Its 11-year-old environmental certificate expired last fall. On June 10, the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, led by Grand Chief Philip Stewart, condemned the decision to move the pipeline ahead without engaging in consultation: 'Once again, it feels like we are headed into a long, hot summer.' 'We don't want to see a repeat of what happened with the Wet'suwet'en, with the armed police invading their pointing guns at people,' said Geel. 'No injunctions.' By respecting the traditional process of Ayook , and engaging in dialogue with the Gitxsan, Geel believes that could be avoided. 'We want to work on things as they come up,' said Geel. In 2024, Gitxsan hereditary chiefs called for the resignation of B.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Leonard Marchand Jr., for allowing industries to use B.C. courts to obtain injunctions that lead to enforcement by the RCMP on Gitxsan territory. Geel, and 11 other hereditary Gitxsan chiefs launched an awareness campaign this week to highlight traditional Gitxsan Ayook, or laws, and their essential role in guiding responsible land development and economic growth on Gitxsan Laxyip, or traditional land. The Gitxsan Nation covers about 35,000 square kilometres in northwestern B.C. including the Hazelton area in the watersheds of the upper Skeena and Nass River region. Its communities include the Kispiox, Glen Vowell, Kitwanga, Kitwankool and Gitsegukla. 'As a hereditary chief, I have a responsibility to take care of the land. We have our own system. We have our own laws,' said Geel. 'The industries are pretty good and knowledgeable about knowing who they should come to, and who they should talk to, but we need more respect from the government,' said Geel. The B.C. NDP's new fast-track law, which gives the provincial government broad power to override regulatory hurdles, has raised concerns. 'We still stand by our authority,' said Geel. ' You can't push something through without us.' While the original pipeline agreement is still in place, Geel said it needs to be revisited since so much time has passed. 'We do have to consider there have to be potential impacts and turn over every stone to address any concerns.' Respect for the Gitxsan traditions and culture means conversations with each of the wilps, or house groups, of the nation, each of which holds the responsibility of preserving the sanctity and safety of their traditional territories. 'We are matrilineal, so how you receive your lineage is through your mother,' said Geel. The head chief of each Wilp has the authority over a specific piece of land, but works with other chiefs and community members to come to a decision. 'If you belong to a house or wilp and that house is tied to a piece of land and the land you use to sustain yourself and have a concern about what is happening, they need to come to me and talk to the Wilp and work things through.' Paramount is preserving the sanctity of the process, respecting the voice of each Wilp . The system, with its guiding principle of Ayook , has worked since time immemorial, said Geel, who emphasized that land management decisions are based on traditional knowledge combined with science. 'We were asked to take care of the land, and each of us take it very seriously.' dryan@
