With federal Medicaid funding being cut off for Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the country, thousands of others are offering healthcare to pregnant women nationwide.
Thousands of providers, including federally qualified health centers, rural health clinics, pregnancy centers and doctors are already offering comprehensive health care that Planned Parenthood doesn’t, according to a new report published by the Charlotte Lozier Institute.
Redirecting Medicaid funding to providers like these will ensure that “taxpayer funding will instead go to providers who offer real health care, not the nation’s largest abortion chain,” the institute says.
Federally qualified health centers receive federal grants to provide healthcare in underserved communities; rural health clinics receive Medicare and Medicaid funding, serving 60% of rural Americans. The institute estimates there are 3,300 rural health clinics providing women’s health services nationwide.
“For years, Planned Parenthood received hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer funding despite abhorrent stories of poor care and its focus on abortion,” Tessa Cox, senior research associate at CLI and author of the paper, said in a statement. “Now, with tax dollars being redirected at the state and federal levels, abortion advocates insist that Planned Parenthood is irreplaceable. Women deserve to know they have health care options that extend beyond a group dedicated to ending unborn life.”
Nonprofit pregnancy resource centers, which don’t rely on federal funds but on donations, provide a range of free services, including ultrasounds, sexually transmitted infections (STI) tests, education on fertility awareness-based methods for women, material resources, counseling and other support, the institute notes. Of the roughly 2,750 pregnancy centers nationwide, roughly 82% provided ultrasounds in 2022, 36% were estimated to provide testing for STIs; 28% provided STI treatments, according to another institute survey.
Pointing to states where Planned Parenthood has already largely been defunded, a range of resources exist to help women, and the institute argues “the abortion business is replaceable.”
In Texas, for example, after the legislature passed bills to ban elective abortions, which were signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott, funding to support pregnant women and their families was substantially increased. Multiple resources exist and can be found at FamilyResources.texas.gov.
Abbott also signed bills into law to extend Medicaid health-care coverage to 12 months post-partum, with the legislature appropriating more than $447 million for women’s health programs. The state also invested more than $140 million in the Thriving Texas Families program in the last legislative cycle, The Center Square reported. This year, funding appropriations included $165 million for the Thriving Texas Families program and $400 million to women’s health services.
According to state data, Medicaid covers the cost of more than half of all births in Texas and funds 12 months of postpartum care.
While Planned Parenthood maintains that other providers won’t be able to absorb its Medicaid clients, the multi-hundred-million-dollar abortion organization hasn’t been a major provider of healthcare services, according to an analysis of Medicaid data by the Kaiser Family Foundation. In 2021, Planned Parenthood served 11% of Medicaid family planning clients, the foundation found.
Planned Parenthood funding cuts are a result of Trump administration policies, legislation passed by Congress and recent court rulings.
In June, the Supreme Court ruled in Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic that states have the right to exclude abortion providers like Planned Parenthood from state Medicaid programs.
In July, President Donald Trump signed the “Big Beautiful Bill Act” into law, which prohibits large abortion providers like Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid funds. Planned Parenthood sued and a district court issued two preliminary injunctions blocking the federal government from enforcing the law.
The decision was appealed and on Sept. 11, the First Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously overruled the lower court’s ruling and stayed the injunctions.
