Section:GDN 1N PaGe:20 Edition Date:190821 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 20/8/2019 18:04 cYanmaGentaYellowb
- The Guardian Wednesday 21 Au g u st 2019
(^20) World
Row over US abortion clinics
amid Trump restrictions
Ed Pilkington and agencies
The Democratic party’s top female
leaders, including several contenders
for the presidential nomination, have
rallied around Planned Parenthood
amid the organisation’s high-profi le
dispute with the Trump administra-
tion over abortion provision.
The largest reproductive healthcare
institution in the US withdrew yester-
day from the federal family planning
programme that provides health ser-
vices to poor women. It did so rather
than submit to new rules imposed by
the Trump administration that block
clinics from referring patients for
abortions.
Many of the top female candidates
for the Democratic presidential nom-
ination waded into the row, decrying
the new restrictions and warning they
will harm low-income families.
The Massachusetts senator Eliza-
beth Warren, one of the fi rst members
of the Democratic pack to put forward
an abortion plan , accused the Trump
administration in a tweet of “deliber-
ately obstructing low-income people’s
access to basic healthcare services”.
The California senator Kamala
Harris called the new regulations a
“domestic gag rule” that would impact
millions of people. “This is a disgrace,”
she said. “As president, I will undo this
gag rule on my fi rst day in offi ce.”
Abortion looks set to be a major
fault line in next year’s election.
About 4 million women are served
nationwide under the federal family
planning programme, known as Title
X, which distributes $260m (£213m)
in grants to clinics.
Under the rule change, any group
that is in receipt of Title X funding
will have to separate any facilities
performing abortions from clinics
off ering other healthcare services,
with no referral between the two.
Alexis McGill Johnson, Planned Par-
enthood’s acting president and CEO ,
predicted that many low-income
women who rely on its services would
“delay or go without” care.
Planned Parenthood’s withdrawal
from Title X was greeted as a major
victory by anti-abortionists. Cathe-
rine Glenn Foster, head of the group
Americans United for Life, heralded
the news as “a great day for women’s
health in America”.
Amrit Dhillon
Delhi
They w ill not have their belongings
thrown out on to the road – yet – but
Indian former MPs who lost their seats
in the country’s last election have been
told that if they fail to vacate their offi -
cial bungalows within a week, the gas,
electricity and water will be cut off.
A bout 200 grand bungalows in the
heart of New Delhi, part of an area
built as the capital of the British Raj,
are still occupied by former MPs who
should have left the residences within
a month of the last parliament being
dissolved on 25 May.
A parliamentary housing committee
was forced to issue the stern warning
as incoming MPs, who are keen to
grab one of the nicest perks of the
job, are forced to wait in rented
accommodation with their suitcases
packed but with nowhere to go.
There are fewer places more pleas-
ing to live in Delhi than the Lutyens
zone, named after the British archi-
tect Sir Edwin Lutyens who designed
and built many of the offi cial build-
ings during the Raj in the 1930s and
1940s. The zone includes almost 2,
highly coveted bungalows, which are
overwhelmingly held in state hands.
The broad, leafy avenues in the
zone are lined with white colonial
bungalows featuring porticoes and
arches, high ceilings, spacious rooms,
and forbidding perimeter walls. Even
the quarters set aside for the servants
are vast, and the gardens are the size
of public parks.
Some MPs and politicians have nev-
ertheless remained illegal occupants
for years and residents can go to
great lengths to stay on. One favour-
ite method is for the off spring of a dead
MP or minister to turn the bungalow
into a “memorial” to justify their fam-
ily remaining in place.
Others insist that security threats
necessitate staying in one of the well-
appointed residences, while some just
wait for a forced removal.
In 2013, Payal Abdullah , the
estranged wife of a Kashmir politician,
Omar Abdullah , refused to move out of
the bungalow allotted to her husband,
even though he was not living in it.
Three years later, a Delhi high court
judge asked her: “Will you gracefully
vacate or should I pass an order? ”
When she refused, the police forcibly
evicted her.
Mayawati , the former Uttar Pradesh
chief minister, had to be served an
eviction order last year before she
grudgingly vacated her residence.
A few politicians, however, are
willing to move on. When the former
fi nance minister Arun Jaitley asked
Narendra Modi , the prime minister,
to relieve him of his ministerial job on
account of ill health he could justifi ably
have stayed on in his offi cial bungalow
as a member of the upper house. But
the moment he relinquished his post,
he moved out.
What the incoming MPs may
fi nd, though, is that the previous
occupant showed scant regard for the
architectural integrity of the historic
bungalow. Over the years, MPs from
across the political spectrum have
given many bungalows additions
including plywood partitions, sheds
covered with corrugated plastic and
extra toilets.
Government
moves to
force ex-MPs
out of plush
Delhi homes
▲ The historic Lutyens zone in New Delhi PHOTOGRAPH: AMRIT DHILLON/THE GUARDIAN
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