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California officials are giving Planned Parenthood $140 million to keep 109 clinics open and offset financial strain from cuts imposed by Republicans in Washington, the Democratic governor said. Gavin Newsome announced.
Newsom said the move reaffirms the state's continued commitment to ensuring abortion access for women in the Golden State amid efforts by President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans to shut down Planned Parenthood.
“California is the state of reproductive freedom, and these latest investments continue to demonstrate our belief in protecting access to essential health care in times of disaster,” Newsom said in a statement Thursday. “Trump’s efforts to protect Planned Parenthood put all of our communities at risk as people turn to these public providers for basic health care.”
State lawmakers will also take up the issue when the Legislature reconvenes in January.
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California officials are giving Planned Parenthood $140 million to keep 109 clinics open. (AP/Mark Schiefelbein)
Planned Parenthood announced it will cancel primary care services at clinics in Orange and San Bernardino counties starting in December. Five other clinics in the Bay Area, Santa Cruz and the Central Valley have also closed in recent months as the federal government tries to protect the organization.
Dr. Janet Jacobson, medical director of the Orange and San Bernardino County Clinics, told CalMatters that the federal government's actions are “destroying our primary care program.”
“It is inhumane to deprive people of health care,” Jacobson said. “People with Medi-Cal should be able to see the primary care provider of their choice.”
Planned Parenthood needs about $27 million a month to operate all of its local facilities, Jody Hicks, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood affiliates in California, told CalMatters.
“Planned Parenthood affiliates in California are grateful to Governor Newsom and our allies in the Legislature for taking this necessary step to ensure Planned Parenthood health centers will remain open and able to provide critical services while they weather the impacts of federal defunding,” Hicks said in a statement.
California is fourth state distributing public funds in support of Planned Parenthood, joining Washington, Colorado and New Mexico. Lawmakers in Oregon and New York are also considering giving the organization public money.
California is the fourth state to provide public funds to support Planned Parenthood. (REUTERS/Lucas Jackson)
Republicans in the nation's capital and across the country have targeted Planned Parenthood over abortion services. Trump's spending bill, signed into law over the summer, barred Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid money for its services, including abortions, mammograms, pap smears, birth control and testing for sexually transmitted infections.
Facilities in GOP-led states with abortion restrictions also were forced to stop procedures after Supreme Court decision 2022 it overturned Roe V. Wade and gave states back the power to make laws regarding abortion.
Planned Parenthood centers are closing in various states across the country, including California and New York. Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, which operates 30 health centers along the California coast, the Central Valley and Nevada, closed five health centers in July after Trump blocked funding for Planned Parenthood.
Mar Monte Chief of Staff Andrew Adams said the organization is working on ways to maintain its financial stability. Adams said the closure helped maintain services at the organization's other clinics through the end of the year, but it could face a “financial cliff” in the new year.
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Republicans in the nation's capital and across the country have targeted Planned Parenthood over abortion services. (REUTERS/Galen Morse)
“We plan to create an environment where there is no federal funding,” Adams told CalMatters. “It looks like we're going to have to potentially charge patients a certain amount of money for the services we provide.”
The organization claims abortions make up only 3% of its services, but pro-life groups say clinic closures in states where abortion is illegal prove that to be false.
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“If that were true, they wouldn't be closing all these facilities in pro-abortion states that don't allow abortions. So in 2025, it’s hardly believable,” 40 Days for Life CEO and founder Sean Carney told Fox News Digital in August.
Lawmakers in Newsom, California, and Planned Parenthood have spent much of the year searching for a solution to keep the organization afloat without federal dollars, according to CalMatters.
But given the multibillion-dollar government deficit, this has proven to be a difficult task.
