The U.S. says it will burn $9.7 million of birth control. Its fate is still unclear

"For months, $9.7 million worth of birth control meant for women in low-income countries has sat stranded in a Belgian warehouse apparently destined for destruction as a result of the Trump administration's freeze on foreign aid. The State Department said in July that it would spend $167,000 in taxpayer money to incinerate the contraceptives at the end of the month, despite the fact that they are paid for and unexpired."

""Nobody benefits by this product being burned," Sarah Shaw, associate director of advocacy at MSI, told NPR. "It's an environmental disaster, it's a human rights disaster, it's just a catastrophe on every single level. So it's like, why not just hand it over quietly, hand it over to a third party and let them deal with it?" But the administration's July deadline came and went, without official confirmation of the stockpile's destruction"

Nine-point-seven million dollars worth of contraceptives intended for women in low-income countries remains stored in a Belgian warehouse because of a U.S. freeze on foreign aid. The U.S. planned to spend $167,000 to incinerate the paid-for, unexpired products. Humanitarian organizations offered to buy and distribute the supplies to avoid waste and harm. MSI's Sarah Shaw called the incineration an environmental and human rights disaster and urged transfer to third parties. Confusion followed after a deadline passed with mixed statements about whether the stockpile was destroyed; Belgian authorities later inspected the warehouse and found the contraceptives still present.

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