Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Trump Administration To Immediately Enforce Family Planning Funding Changes After Court's Go-Ahead
Politico Pro: HHS Says It Will Begin Enforcing Family Planning Overhaul
The Trump administration says it will begin immediately enforcing new rules barring federal family planning dollars to groups that provide abortions or make referrals for the procedure, ending weeks of uncertainty about the status of the overhaul. Diane Foley, the head of HHS' Office of Population Affairs, wrote to Title X grantees Monday night that the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' recent decision not to freeze the rule while legal challenges play out means most of it can take effect. (Ollstein, 7/15)
The Hill: Trump Administration Begins Formally Enforcing New Abortion Restrictions
That means clinics receiving family planning grants to provide contraception and other services to low-income women will have to stop providing abortion referrals or lose their funding. The requirement that family planning services funded by Title X be financially separate from abortion services also begins today. An additional requirement that abortion services and Title X services be performed in separate facilities won't take effect until next year. (Hellmann, 7/15)
The Associated Press: Trump Abortion Restrictions Effective Immediately
The head of a national umbrella group representing the clinics said the administration is following "an ideological agenda" that could disrupt basic health care for many low-income women. Ahead of a planned conference Tuesday with the clinics, the Health and Human Services Department formally notified them that it will begin enforcing the ban on abortion referrals, along with a requirement that clinics maintain separate finances from facilities that provide abortions. Another requirement that both kinds of facilities cannot be under the same roof would take effect next year. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 7/15)
In other news —
Atlanta Journal Constitution: Georgia Abortion Foes Try To Link 'Personhood' To Civil Rights
The sponsor of Georgia’s new anti-abortion law compares civil rights activists who oppose the measure to plantation owners, saying they are trampling on the rights of the unborn just as owners ignored the humanity of slaves. “Sadly, civil rights groups who crush the rights of unborn children remind me of 18th century plantation owners who, after winning their freedom from Britain, enslaved people of color to achieve their own economic goals,” Acworth Republican state Rep. Ed Setzler told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. (Prabhu, 7/15)
