Editor’s note: This story was updated to correct information about government funding for Planned Parenthood. A previous version attributed over $21 billion in funding to other health centers as going to Planned Parenthood.
Provisions in the Republican budget reconciliation bill would eliminate Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood and any health clinics that provide abortion.
A 2024 report by Planned Parenthood says about 39% of its revenue in 2023 came from government reimbursements and grants.
Between 2019 and 2021, Planned Parenthood affiliates received about $148 million in federal grants, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
The Trump administration has described abortion as a “ violation of faith and conscience,” and said federal money should not be used to fund abortion.
Lindsay Johnson, chief external affairs officer at Planned Parenthood of Greater Washington and North Idaho, said Medicaid cuts would affect more than just abortion.
“ They come to us for STI screenings and treatment. They come to us for pregnancy testing, breast exams,” she said. “It's just the type of care that anyone needs to be healthy.”
Planned Parenthood also provides services such as pap smears, vasectomies and HIV preventative treatments.
Roughly half of Planned Parenthood’s 100,000 Washington state patients are on Medicaid, according to a fact sheet published by Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell’s office. Cantwell issued the report to acknowledge the three-year anniversary since the Supreme Court reversed the federal right to abortion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization.
Johnson said she believes it would be unsustainable to have all of Planned Parenthood’s Medicaid patients transition to federally qualified health centers, or FQHCs, that can bill through Medicaid.
“They are also dealing with large patient loads, and having to take on Planned Parenthood's patients would cause people to have to wait longer for appointments, again, putting off this preventive care that's so important,” she said.
According to the Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy organization focused on sexual and reproductive health, Planned Parenthood serves one-third of all contraceptive patients served by safety-net family planning centers nationally.
Though the institute did not directly model the effects of Medicaid cuts to Planned Parenthood, its report estimated that if there were no Planned Parenthood clinics, FQHCs would have to increase their capacity to provide contraceptive services by 143% in Washington state.
The cuts could also reduce early detection of some cancers, said Dr. Asif Luqman, an OB/GYN at Jefferson Healthcare in Port Townsend.
“The big problem is absorbing the cancers that ensue because of those screenings not being done,” he said in a statement to Cantwell’s office.
