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U.S.-Funded Contraceptives Meant for Crisis Zones Are Headed for the Furnace—Unless Congress Acts
Nearly $10 million worth of U.S.-funded contraceptives—purchased to support women in some of the most desperate places on Earth—are currently sitting in a Belgian warehouse, slated for destruction. The supplies include long-acting contraceptives such as implants and IUDs, as well as birth control pills, many of which remain sealed, viable and do not expire until 2031.
According to advocates, there are qualified organizations—including the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and MSI Reproductive Choices—prepared to accept and distribute the supplies at no additional cost to the U.S. government. But Secretary of State Marco Rubio, appointed earlier this year, has not authorized their release.
In response, Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) have introduced legislation to stop the destruction. The Saving Lives and Taxpayer Dollars Act would require the contraceptives to be released for their intended humanitarian use and prohibit incineration of still-viable medical supplies.
Advocates are urging members of the public to call or email their senators and representatives to demand they pressure the State Department to release the contraceptives, not destroy them.
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Sacrificing Women for the Church of Men: Medical Conscience Rights and Christian Hypocrisy
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What Happens When Doulas Write the Law? New Mexico’s Medicaid Win Shows How to Fight Back
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‘If You’re Not Centering the People Who Are Most Impacted, Your Policy Solution Will Fall Apart’: Gaylynn Burroughs Is Fighting for Economic Justice at the Intersections
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Tackling Structural Barriers—60 Years of the Voting Rights Act
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Fifteen Minutes of Feminism: 200 Days of Trump 2.0 (with Skye Perryman)
Trump has been in office for 200 days. In those 200 days, important institutions core to democracy have been dismantled. The rule of law has been challenged in countless ways—increasingly violent ICE raids and disappearances, dismantling of important agencies, canceling of funding for public broadcasts, significant rollbacks of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives, draconian cuts to healthcare and social services, executive orders singling out queer and trans people, and much more.
But we’ve also seen a coordinated effort to resist him, with millions across the country taking to the streets again and again to protest on behalf of the rights of their neighbors, their families, and themselves. Attorneys and advocates are also stepping up, demanding courts to defend our rights. Two hundred days in, what have we learned—and what’s the playbook for the next four years?
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- Flogged into Silence: Taliban’s Public Brutality Targets Afghan Women and Society
- $9.7 Million in Contraceptives Set for Destruction as Aid Freeze Continues
- Funding Delay Disrupts Head Start Access for Low-Income Families
- Judge Blocks Latest Attempts to Defund Planned Parenthood
- How AI is Fueling a New Wave of Environmental Racism
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What About the Men? Analyzing the Public Health Crisis Affecting Men and Boys
We can’t talk about the health crisis among men and boys without asking deeper, more uncomfortable questions—ones that go beyond the usual grievance-driven narratives.
During a visit to the Franklin County coroner’s office, I was struck by the fact that over 70 percent of the bodies they investigate are male—victims of overdose, suicide, homicide and accidents. This data doesn’t just signal a crisis; it reflects a profound societal failure to understand men’s suffering through a critical, feminist lens.
Feminist scholars have long argued that the way men are socialized—into silence, risk-taking and emotional suppression—contributes directly to their declining health outcomes. And the burden of this crisis doesn’t fall on men alone: Women, particularly women of color, are often left to carry the emotional and financial weight of caring for the struggling men in their lives.
Healing men is not about restoring old hierarchies, but imagining new, more just forms of connection, care and masculinity.
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‘In Whose Interests Are We Fighting?’ What Historian Premilla Nadasen Learned About Economic Justice from the Domestic Workers’ Rights Movement
Nadasen, who teaches history at Barnard College, offered lessons from the domestic workers’ movement for the current moment in the latest episode of Looking Back, Moving Forward. “We, as feminists today, like domestic workers in the 1970s and in the early 2000s,” she told me, “need to think outside the box.”
Listen to the latest episode of Looking Back, Moving Forward, “Women Can’t Afford to Wait for a Feminist Economic Future (with Premilla Nadasen, Rakeen Mabud and Lenore Palladino, Aisha Nyandoro, Gaylynn Burroughs, and Dolores Huerta)” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
