Guttmacher expert Chelsea Polis on CNN: Impact of US plan to destroy $9.7M in contraceptives

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News Anchor: The Trump administration is planning to burn nearly $10 million worth of contraceptives that were already paid for by taxpayers, rather than delivering them to women in countries that once received assistance from the US Agency for International Development, or USAID, which Trump has dismantled. A US Congressional aide told CNN that the contraceptives are mostly long-lasting types like IUDs and birth control injections. A State Department spokesperson who confirmed the preliminary decision to destroy the birth control says that it would cost $167,000 to incinerate the contraceptives. For more now, I want to bring in Chelsea Polis. She is a Principal Research Scientist for the Guttmacher Institute. This is an organization committed to advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights worldwide. Chelsea, thank you so much for joining us here on the program. First, could you tell us about what is being lost here? You know, what would $9.7 million worth of contraceptives be able to provide?

Chelsea Polis: This $9.7 million worth of contraception set to be destroyed by the Trump administration could have helped more than 1.5 million women and couples in low-income countries time and space their pregnancies. So, that includes pregnancy prevention for about 650,000 people for up to one year and for an additional 950,000 people for 3 to 10 years, depending on the method.

News Anchor: Wow. I mean these are critical, potentially life-saving supplies that could have impacted the lives of so many women. And could you tell us where could they have been used? Which communities could have benefited from this?

Chelsea Polis: Absolutely. As far as we understand, these commodities were intended for distribution in low- and middle-income countries, largely in sub-Saharan Africa. We know that contraceptives benefit women all around the world. For women in crisis settings where some of these methods may have been distributed, such as Sudan or Yemen, women are at greater risk of severe complications or death due to pregnancy and childbirth and in these settings rates of sexual violence are high. So these contraceptives are nothing less than life-saving.

News Anchor: Yeah, lives are on the line here. What impact will this decision have then on maternal mortality?

Chelsea Polis: Every contraceptive destroyed means a woman who wanted to avoid pregnancy may now instead face an unintended pregnancy. It means a family that can't plan when to have children at the times that are best for the health of mother and baby. Or a woman who might resort to abortion using unsafe methods. All of these things could put a woman's life in danger as well as endangering the health and well-being of any children she may already have. Our data from the Guttmacher Institute shows that the now gutted contraceptive programs previously run by USAID provided contraceptive access that prevented over 17 million unintended pregnancies and saved 34,000 women's lives annually.

News Anchor: And to destroy, again, $9.7 million worth of contraceptives, what kind of precedent does this set and what does it mean for the future of global health?

Chelsea Polis: It's wasteful and it's harmful. In the decades of tracking global family planning programs, we've never seen anything like this. This is the deliberate destruction of supplies that were ready for distribution. This goes well beyond policy differences. It's callous, it's wasteful, it's expensive to US taxpayers and it actively harms women and families who are counting on these services. Until this year, the United States has been the world's largest funder of international family planning programs, providing 40% of global donor funding, so this action sends a devastating message to partner countries and organizations that have relied on American partnership for decades. First through the cutting of all family planning funding and now through the purposeful and wasteful destruction of commodities. This is an attack on contraception and on reproductive autonomy, plain and simple.

News Anchor: Yeah and these are products that, as you pointed out, that were already paid for by US taxpayers. They're currently in a warehouse in Europe. They're going to be incinerated soon. Do you know what's being done, if anything, to try to save this stockpile?

Chelsea Polis: Unfortunately, we're hearing from colleagues that the trucks are already en route to France for eventual incineration. So we're obviously very disappointed that the French government has authorized this and has not been able to stop this callous act. We call on the US administration to reverse this order immediately and to agree to distribute contraceptive commodities stored in other locations. We also call on all European countries to take action to stop this action by the US government. Women's lives and health, not to mention the health and well-being of their families, should not be sacrificed for political ideology. If these contraceptive supplies are incinerated, the opportunity for reproductive autonomy for over a million people could also go up in smoke.

News Anchor: We shall see if there's a last-minute change but wow so much at stake here. Chelsea, thank you for joining us. That was Chelsea Polis, the Principal Research Scientist for the Guttmacher Institute. Thank you.

Chelsea Polis: Thank you so much for having me.