Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
'We're Here To Stay,' Planned Parenthood Says After Refusing Title X Funding, But Warns It's Going To Be A Struggle
The Washington Post: After Planned Parenthood Quits Federal Program, Patients Face Higher Fees, Longer Waits And Possible Clinic Closures
In Cleveland, a Planned Parenthood mobile clinic that tests for sexually transmitted diseases has cut its staff to part-time and may shut down. In Minneapolis, women and girls accustomed to free checkups are now billed as much as $200 per visit on a sliding fee scale. And in Vienna, W.Va., Planned Parenthood employees are marking boxes of birth control pills with “Do not use” signs because they were paid for with federal grants the organization can no longer accept. Planned Parenthood’s decision to quit a $260 million federal family planning program this week, rather than comply with what it calls a “gag rule” imposed by the Trump administration on abortion referrals, is creating turmoil in many low-income communities across the United States. (Cha and Regan, 8/24)
Boston Globe: As Planned Parenthood Turns Away Federal Funding, STD Cases At Record High
A year ago, the federal government announced a record high number of newly diagnosed sexually transmitted diseases in the country, marking the fourth straight year of sharp and steady increases and a comeback of the infectious bogeyman of past generations. Syphilis was back, gonorrhea had returned with a vengeance, and the nation was “sliding backward,” a federal official warned. (Ebbert, 8/23)
In other news about Planned Parenthood —
The Associated Press: Planned Parenthood Asks Judge To Pause Missouri Abortion Law
Critics of a new Missouri ban on abortions at or after eight weeks of pregnancy are asking a judge to block the law from taking effect this week. Attorneys for Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union head to court Monday to ask U.S. District Judge Howard Sachs to put the law on hold while their legal challenge against it plays out in court. They face a tight deadline: The law is set to take effect Wednesday. Planned Parenthood and ACLU lawyers in a court filing wrote that unless Sachs blocks the law, it will severely limit access to abortion and prevent the “vast majority of patients from obtaining the constitutionally protected medical care they seek.” (Ballentine and Stafford, 8/26)
