$9.7M Birth Control Bonfire: State Department Torches Africa Aid Stockpile
Birth control stockpile worth $9.7 million—nearly 2 million injectables and 900,000 implants—faces State Department's warehouse bonfire in Belgium. Trending queries like “Why is the US destroying contraceptives?” and “Mexico City Policy explained” collide as officials cite expired shelf life and policy. The Guardian’s aide reports boxes with expiration dates beginning 2027, while a spokesperson insists, “No HIV medications or condoms are being destroyed,” creating a scene worthy of bureaucratic surrealism.
While the State Department enacts its $167,000 disposal, Belgian warehouses echo with silence as bipartisan US senators and UN groups protest. Top queries about “foreign aid waste” and “Trump’s USAID shutdown” surface, but only the labels are missing—two-thirds of packages are blank, and the world’s largest donor to family planning effectively becomes the world’s most expensive birth control pyromaniac. “This is a waste of U.S. taxpayer dollars,” says Senator Shaheen, as 650,000 women’s futures go up in smoke.
Sub-Saharan Africa’s teen births soar—rising from 4.5M to 6.1M in 21 years—while 2 million doses smolder, outlasting even the warehouse’s fire alarm by at least two years.
