#contraceptives

Malawians relying on family planning services have received reassurance that they will not face immediate shortages, despite a funding gap that has raised concerns over future supplies. Health Minister Madalitso Baloyi has assured Malawians that the country has sufficient stocks of family planning commodities despite concerns over a US$3.5 million funding gap that could affect future…

Millions of dollars' worth of contraceptives meant to be distributed to low-income nations in Africa have expired, but the Trump administration is paying tens of thousands of dollars a month to keep them in storage in Belgium, according to a report from the U.S. Agency for International Development's (USAID) inspector general. 

About $9.7 million worth of taxpayer-funded contraceptives purchased by USAID and originally destined for low-income nations in Africa got stuck in Belgium after the Trump administration shut down the agency last year. 

According to the report, about $8 million worth of hormonal contraceptives, injectable contraceptives and other family planning commodities are no longer usable after they were moved from climate-controlled storage.  

But the administration has been paying approximately $5,000 per month to store those unusable products.  

The additional $1.7 million in family planning commodities remain viable and continue to be stored in climate-controlled facilities in Geel, Belgium, the report stated. However, the expiration dates on that supply are approaching in the coming years, and the administration has not presented a plan on what it intends to do with them. 

Expiration dates for these items range from April 2028 to September 2031. 

Meanwhile, USAID has paid more than $360,000 in storage and freight costs for the contraception commodities between January 2025 and March 2026, according to the advisory.  

It's still hard to believe that millions of women voted for Trump, Republicons, plus Trump & McConnell being able to replace 2-3 Supreme Court Justices ready to retire this term.

"NEW ORLEANS — A federal appeals court today ordered a severe nationwide restriction on mifepristone, a safe and effective medication used in nearly two-thirds of U.S. abortions as well as for early miscarriage care. The ruling in Louisiana v. FDA by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals grants Louisiana’s extraordinary request to reinstate a nationwide requirement, lifted by FDA in 2021, that patients obtain mifepristone in person at a health center, rather than by mail or at a pharmacy after receiving care through telemedicine, while Louisiana’s appeal proceeds.

The appellate court’s order overrides a lower court’s ruling earlier this month pausing the case while the Trump administration conducts a FDA review that is itself a thinly veiled attempt to lay the groundwork for additional medically unjustified restrictions on mifepristone.

“Anti-abortion politicians have just made it much harder for people everywhere in the country to get a medication that abortion and miscarriage patients have been safely using for more than 25 years,” said Julia Kaye, senior staff attorney for the Reproductive Freedom Project of the ACLU. “Louisiana’s legal attack on mifepristone shamelessly packaged lies and propaganda as an excuse to restrict abortion — and the Fifth Circuit rubber-stamped it. This decision defies clear science and settled law and advances an anti-abortion agenda that is deeply unpopular with the American people. For countless people, especially those who live in rural areas, face intimate partner violence, or live with disabilities, losing a telemedicine option will mean losing access to this vital medication altogether.”

If the U.S. Supreme Court does not block this ruling, the Fifth Circuit’s order will upend how miscarriage and abortion care are currently delivered across the country. Today, more than 1 in 4 people in the U.S. who have an abortion do so using telemedicine. Without this method of care delivery, patients using mifepristone would be forced to travel, sometimes hundreds of miles, to a health center just to pick up a pill, a requirement that leading medical authorities agree has no safety benefit.

While there are other safe and effective medication abortion regimens that may continue to be available by mail and at pharmacies, mifepristone has long been part of the most common and recommended protocol in the United States—with the highest efficacy and fewest side effects—and is used in nearly two-thirds of all U.S. abortions today.

Amid historically low birth rates and economic pressures from its aging population, China will eliminate a decades-old tax exemption on contraceptives. China aims to impose a unique strategy to address a falling birth rate that threatens its long-term stability. As of January 1, 2026, the government will levy a 13 percent value-added tax (VAT) on various contraceptives, including condoms. The…

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