Planned Parenthood is closing five clinics in northern California after losing Medicaid funding thanks to President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.”
Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, the abortion giant’s largest affiliate in the country, shuttered five locations near the Bay Area on Thursday, saying the bill forced their hand.
The clinics that are closing are all near the Bay Area — located in San Francisco, San Mateo, Gilroy, Santa Cruz, and Madera.
“We really feel like we are in the fight of our life,” said Stacy Cross, president and CEO of the Mar Monte affiliate, which serves California and Nevada.
“I’ve been a Planned Parenthood CEO for 24 years at three separate affiliates, and I can tell you this is really the hardest it’s been in my entire life,” Cross said.
Planned Parenthood laid off more than 60 staffers at the five clinics.
“This law is clearly a back-door ban on abortion in reproductive freedom states,” Planned Parenthood Mar Monte said in a statement.
The massive spending bill, which was signed by Trump on July 4, bans Medicaid reimbursements for one year to abortion providers who were getting at least $800,000 in Medicaid reimbursements, which Planned Parenthood certainly was — the abortion giant was getting about $390 million from Medicaid as far back as 2015.
Federal law already prohibits Medicaid reimbursements for nearly all abortions, but the bill broadens that ban to Planned Parenthood’s other services.
“It essentially defunds Planned Parenthood from Medicaid, from us being able to get reimbursed for the care we provide,” Cross said.
Planned Parenthood sued the Trump administration over the bill shortly after it was signed, and an Obama-appointed judge granted a two-week restraining order against the Medicaid ban.
However, that restraining order expired on Monday, and the judge then issued a narrow preliminary injunction that allowed just 10 Planned Parenthoods to get Medicaid payments.
Planned Parenthood has shut down clinics in a slew of states recently, including Manhattan’s only clinic, four in Minnesota, four in Illinois, two in Texas, and two in Utah.
The White House defended the Medicaid changes in a fact sheet on the bill.
“The One Big Beautiful Bill protects and strengthens Medicaid for those who rely on it — pregnant women, children, seniors, people with disabilities, and low-income families — while eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse. The One Big Beautiful Bill removes illegal aliens, enforces work requirements, and protects Medicaid for the truly vulnerable,” the White House said.
