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How Defunding Planned Parenthood Impacts Health Care
Happy June! Thanks for spending another Friday with us. Reach out: ecordover@ and klong@ And a very special thanks to Politico Journalism Institute Fellow Laney Crawley for her help with this edition.
The GOP-led spending bill that passed the House on May 22 vows to defund Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion provider and a health care resource that is used by one in three women (and one in 10 men) across the U.S.
The organization has been on the chopping block since President Donald Trump took office. In March, the new administration cut funding to several Title X providers, including Planned Parenthood, shorting the organization tens of millions of dollars. If the bill succeeds to pass the Senate, Planned Parenthood patients would not be able to get care through Medicaid.
At least 20 Planned Parenthood clinics have already had to close down this year across Iowa, Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota, New York, Utah and Vermont, due to what they say is financial and political strain.
'We are in a fight for survival, not just for Planned Parenthood health centers, but for everybody's ability to get high quality, affordable health care,' President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Action Fund Alexis McGill Johnson tells Women Rule.
'We can't overstate how it will disrupt the entire fabric of the health care system,' Ruth Richardson, CEO of the Planned Parenthood North Central States affiliate, tells Women Rule.
The fight against Planned Parenthood is multifold and long-standing. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) introduced her own bill in 2023 titled the Defund Planned Parenthood Act, saying 'the nation's largest abortion provider has no business receiving taxpayer dollars.' Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) introduced a similar bill — the End Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Providers Act — in the Senate in January. (The Congressional Budget Office found that defunding the organization would cost the government more than it saved.)
And when the Supreme Court first announced it would hear arguments in a South Carolina lawsuit over whether Medicaid can be stripped from Planned Parenthood, nearly 100 Republican members of Congress wrote to the high court urging the justices to side against the health provider. (The court heard arguments in April and the case is ongoing.)
Without Medicaid reimbursements, McGill Johnson and Richardson explain, the clinics cannot stay financially afloat and up to 200 of the 600 Planned Parenthood clinics across the country may have to close. Shutting down these clinics may leave millions of Americans without health care they've relied on for years, forcing many of them to travel for care or to forgo lifesaving preventative measures such as wellness exams and cancer screenings.
'You're certainly not stopping the need for care. You're putting the burden on people to get that care. It means that people are going to delay treatment until they're able to get there,' McGill Johnson says.
Excluding Planned Parenthood from Medicaid 'does not just impact patients on Medicaid,' McGill Johnson adds, 'It actually impacts all of us who rely on those clinics and hospitals, particularly in rural areas in order to get that basic access to care.'
The services these clinics and centers provide go beyond just abortion or even reproductive health services.
'$2.8 million of our funding, right now, is frozen,' Richardson says.
And the people who will be most affected by the defunding are already the most vulnerable in the community, McGill Johnson and Richardson add.
'The majority of our health centers are in rural or medically underserved communities. We see patients regardless of their ability to pay. We believe that they deserve access to high quality care. This is our literal reason for existing.'
Since many of the physical clinics are closing, Richardson says the organization has expanded other operations like online care.
'Virtual care is critically important now, especially thinking in terms of just the increasing health care deserts we're already seeing within our rural communities,' Richardson says.
Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood and its affiliates are lobbying lawmakers on the Hill.
'We are hoping that reason will prevail in the Senate,' McGill Johnson says.
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Mary Thomas is now CEO of the Faith and Freedom Coalition. She previously was chief strategic growth officer of the Job Creators Network. (h/t POLITICO Playbook)
