More than 1.4 million women and girls across Africa may lose access to critical contraceptives, following U.S. government plans to incinerate $10 million worth of reproductive health supplies currently stored in a Belgian warehouse, according to the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF).
The stockpile, owned by the United States and originally intended for low-income countries, is facing destruction in France after the recent shutdown of key operations under the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The move has sparked sharp criticism from global health advocates, NGOs, and European lawmakers.
Around 77% of the supplies — including implants and injectables with expiry dates stretching to 2029 — were earmarked for African nations such as Tanzania, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Mali, and Zambia. IPPF says efforts to purchase the contraceptives from the U.S. government were rejected, even as countries report growing shortages in reproductive health supplies.
“In Tanzania, USAID’s funding cuts have already led to a significant shortage in contraceptive implants,” said Dr. Bakari, Project Coordinator at UMATI, IPPF’s member association in Tanzania. He noted that the country was scheduled to receive over a million injectable contraceptives and 365,000 implants — representing more than 40% of the entire shipment and nearly a third of Tanzania’s annual family planning needs.
Kenya is facing similar challenges. “The funding freeze has caused stock-outs, leaving facilities with less than five months of supply,” said Nelly Munyasia, executive director of the Reproductive Health Network in Kenya. She warned that USAID’s withdrawal has created a 46% funding gap in Kenya’s national family planning programme.
The loss of the contraceptives could have dire consequences. According to the Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition (RHSC), failure to distribute the stockpile could lead to 362,000 unintended pregnancies, 161,000 unplanned births, and 110,000 unsafe abortions across 32 countries.
The coalition also warned that sudden shortages of preferred contraceptive methods could lead women to switch to less suitable alternatives, creating ripple effects in supply chains. “When family planning stocks are compromised, the entire supply chain is at risk,” RHSC stated.
The destruction plan has also drawn political backlash in Europe. French Green Party politicians have urged President Emmanuel Macron to intervene, calling the plan an extension of “Donald Trump’s anti-choice agenda.”
Despite these calls, France’s health ministry said there is no legal basis to prevent the destruction or to repurpose the contraceptives for European use. “Since contraceptives are not drugs of major therapeutic interest, and we are not facing a supply shortage, we have no means to requisition the stocks,” it stated.
U.S. State Department officials said the matter remains under review, but with incineration preparations underway, time is running out to redirect the life-saving supplies to the communities that need them most.
