(Photo: Scott Olson, Getty Images.)
Now that the freeze on Medicaid funding specifically for Planned Parenthood facilities and clinics that provide abortions has expired, Ohio facilities are working to restore services they couldn’t afford during the year-long funding blackout.
Although federal law no longer prohibits the employ of Medicaid dollars for abortion services, clinics that also provide these services have been cut off from federal reimbursement.
That means the biggest impact, according to the state’s Planned Parenthood, came from funding STD testing, cancer screenings, contraceptive consultations and primary care visits.
“When patients don’t have access to free or covered STD testing and treatment, they don’t include it in their visits, so many infections go undetected, which means they can spread more easily in the community,” said Lauren Blauvelt, executive director of Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio.
Blauvelt said it’s still arduous to determine what the full extent of the annual cuts will be, especially if there are other declines in funding and support over the years.
“We cannot make staffing changes until we start to see an increase in the number of patients returning to care,” she said. “But we are committed to expanding our services, including preventive care.”
Planned Parenthood of Southwest Ohio decided to close two locations in Ohio when cuts ended, closing clinics in Hamilton and Springfield. Danielle Craig Hemphill, director of external clinics for the region, said the closures are “permanent,” but the facilities in Dayton and Mt. Auburn are still open and telehealth is still an option for these patients.
According to Hemphill, when the federal spending bill that cut that funding was signed, 40% of southwest Ohio’s family planning patients were on Medicaid.
Since the funding decline, the number of family planning and gender-affirming care visits has dropped by 55% in the region, and communities of color have been proportionately hardest hit.
“It is likely that many of these patients did not receive care at all, which could have a huge impact on their long-term health,” Hemphill told the Capital Journal.
Telehealth services are available at Planned Parenthoods across the state, and both Hemphill and Blauvelt said they encourage patients to employ these services if it is possible for them.
While not appropriate in every case, telehealth is touted as a useful access point for people without reliable transportation, low-income populations, and people in or near parts of the state without clinics.
The Ohio Department of Health’s annual abortion report showed a 15% raise in 2025, attributing the raise primarily to telehealth regulations.
Mifepristone and misoprostol, the two-drug regimen most commonly used in medication abortion, has been approved by the FDA since 2000 for employ in the practice, and despite congressional hearings and anti-abortion movements that claim otherwise, decades of scientific research supports the drug’s safety.
Reproductive health clinics, including Planned Parenthood, are accustomed to unexpected cuts and even elimination of funding as the national debate over reproductive rights continues.
Republican majorities in both Congress and the Ohio General Assembly have supported trying to further regulate abortion and/or completely defund providers of the service.
The attempts occurred before and after a 2023 constitutional amendment to establish abortion and other reproductive rights in the state, which passed by a 57% vote in Ohio.
“We know Ohioans want decisions about their personal health to be made personal, not made by politicians,” Blauvelt said. “The right to reproductive health care is only as good as the access to that health care.”
Legislation has been introduced in Ohio that would create “personhood” laws, meaning intrauterine fetuses would have constitutional rights at conception.
Legislation was also introduced to prevent abortion clinics from receiving any Medicaid funding, even after previous cuts expire.
None of these bills have become law, but anti-abortion legislation has become a mainstay in the Ohio Legislature over the past few years.
Since then, the 24-hour grace period law has been in force temporarily knocked out by the Franklin County Courthouse, but another bill for the grace period has been introduced and is still under the control of the legislator.
Laws that force abortion providers to pay for the burial or cremation of fetal remains and prohibit things such as: employ of telehealth in abortion treatment have also been blocked by Ohio courts, even before The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that telehealth abortion services can continue in connection with the Louisiana case.
The legislature is on an extended summer recess that is scheduled to last until November’s general election, which reproductive rights advocates say should focus attention on the election’s impact on reproductive health in the next General Assembly and next year in Congress.
Blauvelt said it’s crucial during election season for voters to make clear their demands on incumbents and potential elected officials when it comes to health care affordability and access.
“Blocking patients from accessing affordable health care is the exact opposite of what voters deserve and are looking for,” Blauvelt said.
