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A bipartisan pair of senators pressed the Trump administration to release family planning funding and supplies to aid women affected by an ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
In a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday, Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) requested to lift the freeze on the $608 million in congressionally appropriated funds for international family planning and $1.7 million in family planning products that have already been purchased. The lawmakers said they believe these products will “otherwise be destroyed.”
Semafor was the first to report this request.
“Ebola during pregnancy is catastrophic, with a nearly 100 percent fetal loss rate and catastrophic material mortality risk due to severe hemorrhaging,” the lawmakers wrote.
“By providing women with the option to voluntarily prevent unplanned pregnancies and to protect themselves from transmission of the virus and have access to clinics, the United States can prevent further deaths of women and the cruel and certain death of any fetus exposed to the virus,” they continued.
The lawmakers also asked the State Department to consider a “humanitarian exemption” that could allow the U.S. to support the UN Population Fund and restart reproductive health programming in this country.
This outbreak has killed over 1,000 people in the DRC since it began in May, the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention said last week. The World Health Organization (WHO) said the spread of the Bundibugyo strain of the virus is exacerbated by a humanitarian crisis in this country.
As of Wednesday, the WHO has reported 3,532 confirmed cases in the DRC and 1,556 confirmed deaths resulting from this outbreak. Twenty cases have been confirmed in neighboring Uganda.
Murkowski and Shaheen wrote in their Thursday letter that the “rapid spread of the virus … leaves no time for delay in providing all possible interventions to save lives and prevent the transmission of the virus.”
“The cost of United States response is approaching $1 billion,” the lawmakers continued. “Investment now in voluntary family planning is fiscally rational in addition to being morally urgent.”
The Hill has reached out to the State Department for a response to this letter.
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