French left urges Macron to curb US plan to destroy contraceptives

The French left on Saturday (26) called on President Emmanuel Macron to intervene to contain US plans to destroy female contraceptives worth almost 10 million dollars (55.42 million reais) in Europe.

A State Department spokesperson told AFP this week that "a preliminary decision has been made to destroy certain" contraceptive products from "terminated Biden-era USAID contracts."

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was almost completely dismantled by the Republican administration of Donald Trump upon his return to the White House in January, following the term of Democrat Joe Biden.

Under the plan, around $9.7 million (53.75 million reais) worth of contraceptive implants and IUDs stored in Belgium will be incinerated in France.

An open letter signed by French environmental leader Marine Tondelier and several lawmakers called the US decision “an affront to the fundamental principles of solidarity, public health and sexual and reproductive rights that France is committed to defending.”

They also urged Macron “not to be complicit, even indirectly, in retrograde policies,” and said the contraceptive products were intended for “low- and middle-income countries.”

"Cutting contraceptive subsidies is shameful, but destroying products that have already been manufactured and financed is even more incomprehensible," Tondelier told AFP.

The Greens urged the president to request the suspension of the plan “as part of a joint initiative with the European Commission”.

Mathilde Panot, parliamentary leader of the far-left France Insoumise (LFI) party, said on X that Macron and Prime Minister François Bayrou “have a responsibility to act to prevent this destruction, which will cost lives.”

The State Department spokesman said the destruction will cost $167,000 (R$925,000) and that “no HIV medications or condoms will be destroyed.”

Doctors Without Borders said other organizations offered to cover the costs of shipping and distributing the supplies, but the U.S. government declined to approve it.

U.S. lawmakers have approved cutting about $9 billion (almost R$50 billion) in aid primarily intended for foreign countries.

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