The Planned Parenthood clinic in New Orleans was open for more than 40 years but stopped accepting patients in behind schedule September due to cuts in federal Medicaid funding. Abortion opponents are looking for more ways to extract funds from the organization, even though legal abortion care accounts for a diminutive portion of the services provided by its affiliated health centers. (Photo: Greg LaRose/Louisiana Illuminator)
Anti-abortion groups and Republican elected officials are looking for more ways to prevent Planned Parenthood from receiving federal funds after Republicans in Congress effectively cut off federal Medicaid funding until at least July 2026.
The letters, written by activist organizations and Republican elected officials, show stated goals of preventing Planned Parenthood health centers from receiving any federal money and removing them from the 340B drug pricing program. It allows Title X-funded facilities to receive significant discounts on prescription drugs, enabling them to purchase more drugs and reach more patients.
Anti-abortion activists also expect proposals for further restrictions on Planned Parenthood’s access to Medicaid in the US health care legislation in early 2026.
In July, Republican members of the House and Senate passed a wide-ranging budget reconciliation bill that included a one-year provision prohibiting clinics from receiving federal Medicaid reimbursement if they offer abortion services and bill more than $800,000 for Medicaid in fiscal year 2023. This rule largely applies to Planned Parenthood due to the high dollar amount, but it also applies to some enormous independent clinics.
Since then, more than 20 Planned Parenthood clinics across the country have closed their doors, and many of them did not provide abortion services. Others laid off employees, including Ohio. Maine Family Planning, the state’s largest reproductive health provider, also offered primary care services at three of its 18 clinics, but has discontinued these services at the end of October due to loss of funds.
Katie Rodihan, state communications director for the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said in a statement that the actions would make medications more pricey and take away access to birth control, testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections and cancer screenings.
“These anti-abortion lawmakers want to shut down Planned Parenthood so badly that they are willing to sacrifice your health care,” Rodihan said. “No matter what attack anti-abortion groups and politicians launch, the Planned Parenthood Action Fund will always be ready to fight for patients.”
Opposition to the organization receiving federal funding stems from the belief that its primary purpose is to provide abortion care, when in fact abortion accounts for about 4% of services provided by Planned Parenthood clinics nationwide, according to a novel report annual report. However, anti-abortion groups and many Republican lawmakers oppose tying federal dollars to legal abortion care in any way, even if it is not the direct cost of the procedure, except in restricted cases provided by law.
In behind schedule September, Republican Governor of Oklahoma Kevin Stitt sent a letter to the administrator of the federal Health Resources and Services Administration, a branch of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, requesting that the agency revoke Planned Parenthood’s 340B drug pricing authority and deny any future applications for that designation. The letter was also signed by the Republican governors of Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Ohio, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.
Several Republican-led states including Ohio AND Indianaalso recently tried to cut Planned Parenthood from state funding for Medicaid.
“States across the country are trying to ensure that taxpayer dollars are not used to fund or promote abortions, and as a result, these clinics are looking for roundabout ways to maintain their funding,” Stitt wrote. “Even if pro-life Planned Parenthood affiliates refrain from using federal funds for abortion, the organization’s domestic infrastructure continues to benefit by allowing abortion expansion in states where abortion is legal….”
Instead, Stitt suggested allocating the money to community health centers and rural hospitals.
The letter was sent five days before the government shutdown began on Oct. 1, and the agency has yet to take any action since reopening on Nov. 12.
The argument has its roots in COVID-related lending
Students for Life of America, an anti-abortion group with more than 2,000 student chapters across the country, is leading the effort to pressure Republican President Donald Trump and his administration to disqualify Planned Parenthood as a supplier to the federal government. The administrative process, called “foreclosure,” typically applies to vendors accused of misconduct such as fraud, embezzlement, default or tax evasion, and is set by the U.S. General Services Administration.
A seller who is debarred cannot receive any federal money for three years. There is also a lower penalty of suspension which lasts up to 12 months.
Kristi Hamrick, vice president of media and policy for Students for Life, told States Newsroom that members began discussing the idea behind schedule in Trump’s first term, but because it involves a long administrative process, there wasn’t enough time to pursue it before Democratic President Joe Biden took office.
Students for Life submitted letter to the U.S. Small Business Administration on October 22, along with a letter to the president’s office signed by more than 50 other anti-abortion groups encouraging them to begin the exclusion process. Hamrick said the diminutive business agency has not heard back so far, but workers only recently returned to work after a 43-day shutdown.
Other prominent anti-abortion organizations signed the letter to Trump, including Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, Family Policy Alliance, Americans United for Life, Family Research Council and National Right to Life.
In addition to allegations of financial fraud, the letter to the Small Business Administration accuses Planned Parenthood of a number of other violations and mentions lawsuits filed against the organization led by Republican attorneys general in states such as Missouri and Texas.
Hamrick said the letter came to the agency because Republican Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Joni Ernst of Iowa wrote the letter letter own in March o alleged fraud committed by Planned Parenthood. They wrote that many of its affiliates – which are independent nonprofit organizations – have applied for and received approximately $120 million in Paycheck Protection Program loans during the Covid pandemic.
Both senators said Planned Parenthood was ineligible for the loans because organizations with more than 500 employees were excluded. Planned Parenthood argued that the national organization and its regional affiliates were separate – affiliates applied individually – and lending guidelines were later updated by the Biden administration to allow them. Most of the loans were forgiven.
Other entities have also been accused of abusing the provisions of the Paycheck Protection Program, including Catholic Charities USA, a humanitarian organization of the Catholic Church that employs over 3,000 employees. Associated Press reported the organization and its member agencies received approximately 110 loans worth up to $220 million that were forgiven.
Hamrick said Republicans in Congress should continue to make efforts to prevent Planned Parenthood from reimbursing Medicaid, but more can be done.
“We won’t have to keep voting on whether Planned Parenthood can be funded through a single program like Medicaid if it doesn’t qualify for funding at all,” Hamrick said.
Countries still hit tough by cuts
Hamrick said she hopes Republican lawmakers will extend the Medicaid cuts for 10 years or longer this time because the first round of cuts did not result in any “serious consequences.”
Dr. Chelsea Daniels, a member of the Health Care Committee’s Task Force on Reproductive Freedom, disagrees. Two months ago, she moved from Florida, where she worked in Miami for Planned Parenthood of Florida and where she tried to lend a hand pass an amendment that would have added abortion rights to the state constitution. Although 57% of voters approved it, Florida law requires 60%.
This demoralizing loss, combined with many days of having to tell people she legally couldn’t lend a hand them, became too much for her. Florida has a six-week ban on abortion, except for rape, incest, fatal fetal defects and human trafficking. However, Daniels said she regularly sees sexual assault victims who were unable to obtain abortions regardless of the documentation they presented.
“Honestly, Florida just crushed me. I felt crushed at the end,” Daniels said.
She moved to California and currently practices as a family planning physician at Planned Parenthood in Orange and San Bernardino counties. In its first week on the job, the subsidiary announced it would close its primary care clinic due to cuts to the Medicaid program, laying off 77 employees and sending 13,000 patients to seven clinics who would seek primary care elsewhere such as high blood pressure treatment, vaccines, annual physicals and diabetes treatment. The last day of service will be December 10.
Daniels was not involved in the layoffs, but said the loss of care for so many patients was devastating.
“I left Florida for a reason, but the overall state of the country is not good,” Daniels said. “And I don’t think our federal government cares. They think it’s just collateral damage and punishment for anyone who has ever been associated with Planned Parenthood.”
This story was originally produced by News from the USwhich is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network that includes the Ohio Capital Journal and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
