Sens.Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., are urging the State Department to release hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to help women and infants affected by an Ebola outbreak in East Africa.In a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday, the senators urged him to use $608 million in congressionally-approved international family-planning funds and distribute $1.7 million in already purchased family-planning supplies.The supplies — which the senators implied included condoms, hormonal contraception, post-rape care medicine and hemorrhage medicines — are being stored at a facility in Geel, Belgium, according to the letter.The senators said that if the supplies aren't used, their understanding is that they will be "destroyed."Sens.
Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska and Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., wrote a letter on Thursday to Secretary of State Marco Rubio asking the administration to release congressionally-appropriated funds to help women and infants at risk of contracting Ebola.(Ida Marie Odgaard / Annabelle Gordon)EBOLA TREATMENT CENTER SET ON FIRE IN CONGO AFTER RESIDENTS CLASH WITH AUTHORITIES OVER VICTIM'S BODY"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 added.The senators also asked the State Department to issue a "humanitarian exception" to support the United Nations Population Fund's existing health clinics in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).Psychologists speak with Nyota Safi, a patient who recovered from Ebola virus disease, at the Rwampara Ebola Treatment Centre in Bunia, Ituri, in the east of the...