14 Time Sept. 2–9, 2019
TheBrief News
each year, The federal TiTle X pro-
gram provides $286 million in grants to
groups across the U.S. that provide family-
planning care to low-income patients. But on
Aug. 19, Planned Parenthood walked away
from its share of the money rather than com-
ply with new Trump Administration regula-
tions that prevent referrals for abortion. In
the wake of the decision, the organization
will be left to try to bridge a funding gap so
that patients can get the care they need, in-
cluding cancer screenings, STD testing and
birth control consultations.
“We’re trying to do all we can to ensure
that the care continues,” acting Planned
Parent hood president Alexis McGill Johnson
said on a call with reporters the day of the an-
nouncement. “Using fundraising to do what
should be a state responsibility, a federal re-
sponsibility, is really the challenge. It’s like
holding an umbrella during a tsunami.”
The regulation in question was announced
earlier this year, and Planned Parenthood has
called it a “gag rule,” as it prevents provid-
ers that receive Title X funding from mak-
ing abortion referrals or telling patients
where to obtain one; it also requires abor-
tion providers to be separate from clinics
that use Title X funding for other services.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS) has rejected that character-LOST AND FOUND
Snail mail
It was reported on Aug. 19 that a man collecting firewood on an Alaska beach had found a
50-year-old message in a bottle, from a Russian navy sailor. Here, other slow sends. —Julia WebsterDEAR JOHN
In 1971, John Lennon
wrote a supportive
letter to an aspiring
musician named
Steve Tilston—who
didn’t receive it
until 34 years later.
The story inspired the
2015 movie Danny
Collins, starring
Al Pacino.NO SUCH ZONE
In 2012, an
anonymous man
donated to an
archive 90 letters
that were stolen from
German soldiers on
the island of Jersey
in 1941. Many were
addressed to places
that are no longer
part of Germany.BETTER LATE
A Frenchwoman in
her 80s received a
letter in 2015 about
an order of yarn, but
it was meant for her
great-grandfather,
who’d owned a
spinning mill. The
letter had taken
138 years to travel
about six miles.NEWS
TICKER
DHS to scrap
rule for minor
migrantsThe Department of
Homeland Security
announced Aug. 21 it
plans to end the rule
known as the Flores
agreement, which had
put a 20-day limit on
detention-center stays
for migrant children. A
federal judge must still
approve the change,
and a court challenge
is expected.Italian PM
resigns and
blames SalviniItalian Prime Minister
Giuseppe Conte
resigned on Aug. 20,
12 days after populist
Interior Minister
Matteo Salvini called
for snap elections in
the hopes of replacing
him. Salvini, the leader
of the anti-migrant
League party, has been
surging in recent polls
and wants an election
as soon as possible.Trump
backs up on
gun controlAfter meeting with
lobbyists, including
National Rifle
Association head
Wayne LaPierre,
President Trump
seemed to abandon
the calls for new gun-
control measures that
he’d made after mass
shootings in Texas and
Ohio. “People don’t
realize,” he said on
Aug. 18, “we have very
strong background
checks right now.”ization, noting on its website that Title X
providers can still counsel on abortion, even
though they can’t refer patients for one as
a method of family planning. Clinics had
until Aug. 19 to tell HHS whether they were
taking steps to comply with the rule, but
Planned Parenthood said it would not re-
main in the program unless the U.S. Court
of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit overruled
the policy before the deadline, which it did
not. (The Democrat-dominated House of
Representatives has also passed a spending
bill that would block the Title X restrictions,
but it is unlikely to gain support from the
Republican- led Senate or Trump.)
McGill Johnson did not say how much
funding Planned Parenthood will lose,
though the organization reportedly received
$60 million in annual Title X money. It was
the program’s largest beneficiary, treating
40% of the 4 million people served annually
by its grants. She said Planned Parenthood
will use emergency funds to help close the
gap, but the impact will “vary state by state.”
McGill Johnson did not specify whether some
clinics were at risk of closing, but said the
restrictions could force patients to delay or
forgo medical care—especially in states, like
Utah, where Planned Parenthood had been
the only Title X grantee.
Planned Parenthood, along with other
health groups and about 20 states, continues
to challenge the rule in court. Oral arguments
will be heard in California during the week
of Sept. 23. Until then, HHS can enforce the
rule, and patients will learn for themselves
what its impact is. —jamie ducharmeGOOD QUESTION
Why is Planned
Parenthood rejecting
federal funding?