Many groups are angry that $10 million worth of long-acting birth control, which was to be sent largely to African countries, is allegedly set to be incinerated following the Trump administration’s decision to freeze U.S. foreign aid in January.
Key Takeaways:
- About $9.7 million in long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs), like IUDs and implants, were slated for destruction by the end of July. Reports to date indicate the contraceptives have not yet been destroyed.
- The contraception was intended to have been distributed in poorer African nations, according to reports.
- Pro-abortion groups say destroying the contraception will leave women vulnerable to death from unsafe abortion, but people in Africa are asking for better maternal care, clean water, and economic opportunity — not abortion and birth control.
- Long-lasting contraception is often referred to as “soft sterilization.”
The Details:
According to Reuters, a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department confirmed last month that nearly $10 million worth of long-acting contraception, such as IUDs and implants, will be destroyed. Doctors Without Borders (which receives millions in funding each year from pro-abortion foundations like Wellspring Philanthropic Fund — which also funds SIECUS — and Bloomberg Philanthropies, founded by billionaire pro-abortion former politician Michael Bloomberg) called it a “waste of humanitarian aid.”
But should LARCs and other forms of “soft sterilization” be considered part of a global humanitarian effort? According to The Guardian, incinerating the LARCs will cost US taxpayers $167,000, and the contraceptives were likely intended for African women, refugee camps, and war zones.
Democratic lawmakers attempted to pass last-minute legislation to prevent the LARCs from being destroyed, hoping to have them sent to women in low- and middle-income countries. MSI Reproductive Choices, Europe’s largest abortion chain, was also unhappy with the news that the contraception would not be distributed, claiming that women would die as a result.
“If you have an unintended pregnancy and you end up having to seek unsafe abortion, it’s quite likely that you will die,” said Sarah Shaw, the associate director of advocacy for MSI Reproductive Choices. “If you’re not given the means to space or limit your births, you’re putting your life at risk or your child’s life at risk.”
Why It Matters:
According to the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), African women are a favorite target of the abortion industry.
MSI Reproductive Choices recorded about $55 million in revenue in 2019 and has committed tens of millions of abortions around the world. “They depend on abortion for their income, so they downplay risks and demand more of it,” explained NRLC. MSI and other groups promote both birth control and abortion to people in developing nations. If and when that birth control fails, those groups already have an inroad to promote abortion as a backup plan.
“Treated as sub-humans”
MSI is known for its substandard care to women in developing nations. As shown in “Strings Attached,” a documentary by Culture of Life Africa’s Obianuju Ekeocha, MSI implants LARCs such as IUDs and other birth control devices but then leaves women to fend for themselves when they experience adverse reactions from these devices. As previously reported by Live Action News (emphases added):
One woman [Ekeocha] interviewed described “abdominal pain, paralysis in hands and legs, vaginal discharge, and severe headache on one side” caused by the [Norplant contraceptive] implant. Another woman said that when she requested removal of the Norplant, she was told that it would cost her the equivalent of a week’s worth of food for her family to do so.
Dr. Anthony, a physician in a small, rural Ugandan clinic reported seeing “as many as one hundred women every week” due to serious side effects from Norplant, including “heavy vaginal bleeding, some of them come complaining of headache, severe headache. Some of them have a lot of pain. Some patients come here and they are saying the husbands beat them up because there is a loss of libido. So the man thinks the woman’s going out hitching around.”
He reported one case where a woman had had an IUD in place for 12 years, a not uncommon experience in rural parts of Africa where followup to contraceptive insertion or implantation is nonexistent. He said the woman was “rotting up there,” and that “some patients do die, by the way.”
While American women received financial settlements from the makers of Norplant, Ekeocha did not know of a single African woman who had been compensated for damage caused by a contraceptive from a Western country.
“These organizations say that they’re empowering women, but they are abusing the Africans, especially the ones in the most rural areas who don’t have access to a doctor,” Ekeocha said. “The African people are treated as sub-humans.”
“An Attack on Family and Culture”
Similarly, NRLC reported that African hospitals often lack blood banks, operating theaters, and antibiotics, increasing the risks associated with abortions — including hemorrhaging and infections.
If a woman takes the abortion pill alone, who helps her when complications arise? “Abortion profiteers never answer this question,” said NRLC, and of course, those profiteers promote the at-home abortion pill without any medical oversight as “safe.”
NRLC added:
Pro-abortion NGOs [Non-Governmental Organizations] have also decided that African sovereignty does not matter. They flood capitals with glossy reports, train mid-level health workers to perform abortions, and lobby lawmakers to weaken pro-life laws.
They do not ask if African families want their values overturned. Many Africans cherish children and view abortion as an attack on family and culture. They need better maternal care, clean water, and economic opportunity, not foreign corporations selling abortions.
In the past, the U.S. even sent unsafe contraceptives to Africa, with many of the IUDs found to be unsterilized. Boxes of 1,000 IUDs were also sent, but with only a few applicators and instructions for use that were not in the language of the people administering the contraceptive devices. One injectable contraceptive often sent to Africa, Depo-Provera, has been linked to brain tumors. A March 2024 study linked the drug medroxyprosterone acetate to meningiomas, with multiple lawsuits filed. In addition, a study led by a Michigan State University researcher found that women using Depo-Provera are at an increased risk of having potentially hazardous lead in their blood.
Giving out IUDs and birth control shots is cheaper than providing health care to a growing population, and the government, therefore, kept the lack of standards quiet.
As Live Action News pointed out, “Whereas American women have ready access to treatment options if they experience significant side effects from the Depo-Provera injection or other forms of birth control, women in developing countries continue to suffer to this day from the ‘beneficence’ of Western nations.”
Population Control and “Soft Sterilization” through LARCs
The IUDs also fall in line with population control efforts. In fact, long-acting contraception is also referred to as “soft sterilization,” because after women are convinced to use these products, even some doctors right here in America have refused to take women off of it when requested. In 2024, TIME exposed these efforts to ‘soft sterilize’ women of color and financially disadvantaged women in the U.S.
Women in South Africa have been sterilized without their consent, and research shows that groups like MSI Reproductive Choices are ramping up efforts to get African women on “modern” (long-acting) contraception.
The Bottom Line:
LARCs are risky for women, even in the U.S. where access to health care is not scarce. But in nations with limited access to health care, like Africa, giving women LARCs and leaving them to deal with the consequences on their own, could be a deadly game.
As for the $10M of LARCs set to be destroyed, the executive branch of the European Union spokesman Guillaume Mercier said on August 1 that it “continue[s] to monitor the situation closely to explore the most effective solutions.”
Follow Live Action News on Facebook and Instagram for more pro-life news.
