Washington View, September 2025
Written by Brian Dixon, Senior Vice President for Governmental and Political Affairs, and Anna Newberry, Stanback Governmental Relations Fellow | Published: September 8, 2025
Trump to Destroy Contraceptives, Costing Lives
Leading Democrats introduce bill to prevent destruction of contraceptives by Trump administration
In early June, The Washington Post reported that the US had some $12 million in contraceptives and HIV prevention medication stuck in warehouses overseas that would be destroyed unless they could be sold. The supplies had already been purchased but were being withheld from the agencies contracted to provide them to people around the world.
In response, Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Brian Schatz (D-HI) introduced the Saving Lives and Taxpayer Dollars Act to prevent the destruction of the commodities and impose requirements on the administration to prevent the imminent spoilage of emergency food aid sitting in a Houston warehouse.
Sen. Shaheen said:
“This bill will save lives and prevent the wasting of taxpayer dollars by ensuring that already paid-for life-saving commodities, like food and medicine, are delivered to people in need instead of being pointlessly trashed. At a moment when the Trump administration has made devastating cuts to foreign assistance, it is disappointing that the State Department would sign off on spending money to actually destroy paid-for commodities that would save lives and are waiting to be deployed. Food and family planning commodities are desperately needed in conflict affected countries, like Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo where famine is taking hold. Women are at high risk for sexual violence in conflict settings.”
Sen. Schatz added:
“Intentionally destroying health care products or letting food and medication that the United States government has already paid for as part of our foreign assistance efforts rot and expire in warehouses is absurd. It’s a total waste of taxpayer dollars and is needlessly costing lives around the world. Our bill requires the administration to follow common sense and distribute foreign assistance commodities before they expire.”
House Republicans release foreign aid spending bill
On July 14, Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee released their draft of the National Security and State Department Fiscal Year 2026 appropriations bill. It calls for a family planning spending cap of $461 million — a significant cut from previous years, but a rejection of the administration’s calls to eliminate family planning funding entirely. The bill also bars support to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the world’s largest multilateral provider of reproductive health care, and writes the administration’s Global Gag Rule into law.
The committee is planning to take the bill up after the deadline for this issue. Senate Appropriations leaders have not yet announced any plans.
Reproductive health care for millions threatened
On July 4, Trump signed into law H.R.1, the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill,” following its passage in Congress by the slimmest of margins, mostly along party lines. While heralded by the administration as “beautiful,” the new law is, in fact, a sweeping ideological assault on access to reproductive health care and a dismantling of core elements of domestic safety net programs. H.R.1 targets Medicaid and Planned Parenthood, codifying restrictions that will shutter clinics, block patients from receiving care, and deepen longstanding inequities in the US health system.
The House originally approved the bill in late May on a 21–214 vote, with one Republican joining Democrats in opposition. After intense negotiations and last-minute amendments, the Senate passed the bill on July 1, with JD Vance providing the tiebreaking vote. It narrowly passed the House again on July 3, clearing the path for Trump’s Independence Day signing.
The bill’s massive cuts to Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) will remove coverage from some 10.5 million people. The Medicaid cuts specifically put some 300 rural hospitals across the country at imminent risk of closure. Many of these hospitals have already shuttered their maternity units.
The new law bars any organization “primarily engaged in family planning” from participating in Medicaid for one year. The provision initially sought to “defund” Planned Parenthood for 10 years but was reduced to one year by a Senate parliamentarian ruling. The ruling came days after the Supreme Court sided against Planned Parenthood in Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, ruling that states can prohibit Medicaid funding for any health care services provided by Planned Parenthood. On July 28, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction blocking the provision that defunds Planned Parenthood.
Medicaid is the single largest payer for reproductive health services and covers some 40% of births in the United States. Planned Parenthood is the largest network of providers of family planning to patients covered by Medicaid. According to the Guttmacher Institute, Planned Parenthood health centers served 1.6 million of the 4.7 million contraceptive clients seen by safety-net family planning centers in 2020. By banning Medicaid reimbursements, H.R.1 effectively strips Planned Parenthood of its ability to provide preventative care — birth control, STI testing and treatment, cancer screenings, and pregnancy care — to millions of Americans. The ban puts up to 200 Planned Parenthood health centers at risk of closing, denying vulnerable people the care they need.
According to internal estimates from Planned Parenthood, nearly 60% of the clinics at risk are in medically underserved areas. For patients in rural or low-income regions, the impact will most likely be immediate and devastating, leaving them with few alternatives for reproductive health care. Supporters of this bar on Medicaid payments claim that federally qualified health centers would be able to readily step in to replace Planned Parenthood. However, Guttmacher estimates that federally qualified centers would have to increase their capacity by an impossible 56%.
Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) said:
“You’re ripping care away from the very people our health care system is supposed to protect — working families, women of color, people living on the edge.”
Brian Dixon: bdixon@popconnect.org