NY’s Planned Parenthood clinics still seeing Medicaid patients after funding cut

Planned Parenthood clinics across New York state are seeing Medicaid patients as usual this month, but they’re no longer getting paid for those services, according to the organization’s New York chapter.

The new funding gap is a result of the domestic policy law President Donald Trump signed on July 4, Planned Parenthood of Greater New York said.

“We need relief from this unsustainable situation in short order,” organization spokesperson Senti Sojwal said.

Congressional Republicans voted to “defund” Planned Parenthood with the law by restricting federal Medicaid dollars from flowing to nonprofit abortion providers — even for unrelated health services — for a year. Planned Parenthood’s New York clinics, which received more than 88,000 patients last fiscal year, offer services such as birth control, hormone therapy and screenings for cancer and sexually transmitted diseases, in addition to abortions.

A federal judge in Massachusetts issued a preliminary injunction earlier this week partially blocking the new restrictions from taking effect in a case brought against the Trump administration by the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. But the ruling doesn’t apply to New York and only provides relief to Planned Parenthood chapters that earn a minimal amount of revenue from Medicaid or whose clinics don’t offer abortions.

The new federal restrictions on Medicaid funding could lead to major revenue losses for Planned Parenthood’s New York chapter, which is already grappling with financial difficulties that have forced it to close clinics in recent years.

More than $20 million of the $36 million in patient revenue that Planned Parenthood of Greater New York generated last year came from Medicaid, according to Sojwal. She did not share the organization’s total revenue from other sources like donations.

“ We have weathered a lot of storms over the years,” Wendy Stark, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Greater New York, said earlier this month, shortly after the new federal law was passed. “This is a particularly bad storm.”

Nationwide, the federal legislation “threatens to close nearly 200 Planned Parenthood health centers and will create devastating gaps in our health care infrastructure,” Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, warned just before the bill was passed.

The New York City health department took steps this week to expand abortion access amid the federal attacks. The city’s Fort Greene Sexual Health Clinic will now offer free or low-cost medication abortion “for anyone seeking care, regardless of insurance or immigration status,” the department announced Wednesday.

Stark said she was also working to keep Planned Parenthood clinics in New York open. The anticipated sale of the Bleecker Street building housing the Manhattan Planned Parenthood clinic will help keep the state organization afloat, she said, adding that she expects the sale to take place within the next few months.

Stark said she also hoped New York would step in to make up for federal Medicaid losses if the new law remains in place.

As it stands, the future of state funding for Planned Parenthood in New York appears uncertain.

New York’s Medicaid program has long covered abortions for low-income patients using only state funds, rather than a mix of state and federal dollars. New York and other states have used the maneuver to avoid running afoul of the Hyde Amendment, a 1977 law that prohibits federal funds from being used to pay for abortions, with limited exceptions.

Stark said she wasn’t sure whether Planned Parenthood would be able to continue billing Medicaid for abortions, but not other services, because of this arrangement.

“We are awaiting New York state guidance on this issue,” she said.

Danielle DeSouza, a spokesperson for the state health department, did not respond to questions this week about whether New York’s Medicaid program will continue to use state-only dollars to pay for abortions at Planned Parenthood clinics, or set up a similar arrangement to pay for other services.

DeSouza said in a statement that the agency “will continue to fight for reproductive rights, advance health equity and closely monitor the impacts of the bill — which contains unprecedented cost-shifts that no one state can backfill.”

Nicolette Simmonds, a spokesperson for Gov. Kathy Hochul, said the governor “remains steadfast in her commitment to safeguarding reproductive freedom.” Simmonds stopped short of saying whether Hochul planned to make Planned Parenthood of Greater New York whole.

Stark has vowed to fight to keep Planned Parenthood clinics open, but said Congress’ latest attempt to “starve” them is “absolutely a backdoor abortion ban.”

Federal officials have already appealed this week's court ruling and said they will advocate for full enforcement of the law.

“We strongly disagree with the court’s decision,” Andrew Nixon, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, told the New York Times after the ruling. “States should not be forced to fund organizations that have chosen political advocacy over patient care.”

The Planned Parenthood Federation of America vowed to continue fighting for the new law to be fully blocked in court.