Time - International (2019-09-02)

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 Webster

DEAR 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

migrants

The 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 Salvini

Italian 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 control

After 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 ducharme

GOOD QUESTION

Why is Planned

Parenthood rejecting

federal funding?

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