Aid Groups Warn U.S. May Let Contraceptives Expire

Aid organizations are pressing the Trump administration to release nearly $9.7 million worth of U.S.-purchased contraceptives that have been warehoused in Belgium for months amid a broad freeze of foreign aid programs, warning the supplies could miss import deadlines and go to waste.

The stock, pills, implants, injectables and IUDs bought under USAID contracts during the Biden years, was intended for countries including Tanzania, Kenya and Mali. Instead, it remains in storage in Geel, Belgium, after Washington halted distribution and at one point weighed incineration, a plan estimated to cost about $167,000.

Belgian officials later said destruction had not proceeded and noted Flemish rules restrict burning usable medical goods.

Timeline pressure is acute in Tanzania, where regulators require that imported medicines and many devices arrive with at least 60% of original shelf life remaining. Advocacy groups say portions of the shipment earmarked for Tanzania will fall below that threshold by late 2025 or mid-2026—even though many items do not expire until 2027–2031—making them ineligible for import.

The International Planned Parenthood Federation says the stranded goods include roughly 1 million injectable vials and more than 400,000 implants—about $3.97 million of product, critical for clinics already stretched by funding cuts.

“Destination countries … apply importation rules that limit entry to medicines with a specific percentage of remaining shelf life,” said IPPF supply-chain head Marcel Van Valen, urging swift action.

State Department officials previously described a “preliminary decision” to destroy certain items and suggested some products are “abortifacient,” a characterization hotly disputed by health groups pressing to buy or redistribute the supplies themselves. Offers from UNFPA and other NGOs to take possession have so far been rebuffed, according to multiple reports.

Lawmakers in both parties have also sought a solution, arguing the materials are stable and desperately needed in low-resource settings. With the U.S. government shutdown complicating diplomacy, advocates warn further delay could translate into higher rates of unsafe abortions, maternal deaths and economic strain from unplanned pregnancies.

UNFPA estimates more than 250 million women worldwide want to avoid pregnancy but lack access to contraception—an unmet need that, if filled, could cut maternal deaths by roughly a quarter. Whether the Belgian stockpile is released, sold to humanitarian groups, or ultimately destroyed now hinges on decisions in Washington