The following article was originally published in the Ohio Capital Journal and published on News5Cleveland.com under a content-sharing agreement.
As some Ohio women’s health facilities square with federal budget cuts and a new effort to cut funds at the state level, anti-abortion pregnancy resource centers are receiving millions in state grants.
Even in a state with a constitutional amendment that protects the right to abortion, the difference between the facilities receiving boosts in funding and those facing further cuts is largely their stance on abortion.
A new Ohio bill introduced by Republican state Reps. Jean Schmidt and Adam Mathews seeks to bar Medicaid funds from going to any entities that provide abortion other than when the abortion is a result of rape or incest, or when the life of the pregnant person is endangered.
The bill bases its language on the federal budget reconciliation bill passed and signed into law by President Donald Trump in July.
The federal budget language was criticized for specifically impacting Planned Parenthood, which could lose hundreds of facilities if the loss of funding, on top of other budget cuts, goes through.
The national Planned Parenthood Federation of America is suing to stop the cuts from being enforced. A federal judge temporarily stopped the cuts in July as the lawsuit continues.
Meanwhile, Gov. Mike DeWine and Lt. Gov. Jim Tressel announced nearly $20 million in grants over the next two years, distributed through the Ohio Parenting and Pregnancy Program. The grants were announced as funding boosts to help improve Ohio’s infant health outcomes.
The awards were provided to entities for “prenatal education, parenting classes, case management, referrals and material assistance tailored to the needs of their local communities.”
“These efforts are part of the DeWine-Tressel Administration’s broader mission to reduce infant mortality and ensure every child in Ohio has the opportunity to live up to their God-given potential,” a release on the grant funding stated.
The grant program is distributed by the Ohio Department of Children and Youth, which saw its own cuts in the most recent state operating budget, including millions of dollars cut from line items for “infant vitality.”
The state department reported an infant mortality rate of 6.5 per 1,000 live births in 2024, a slight decrease from the year before.
The annual March of Dimes Report Card for 2024 noted the decrease, but still gave Ohio a D+ for its preterm birth rate, ranking the state 32nd in the country. The report card also noted the infant mortality rate for Black individuals was 1.9 times higher than the overall state rate.
Among the 21 recipients of the grantees are several religiously affiliated groups, including Heartbeat of Lima County, Inc., Elizabeth’s New Life Center, Inc., and the Family Life Center of Auglaize County.
Grant recipients also included several pregnancy resource centers, a sector of services that are controversial and criticized for not being required to have the same medical license requirements as facilities like Planned Parenthood, and for providing medically debunked and inaccurate information to patients.
The application details for the grants noted that the awards would only go to entities who promote “childbirth, parenting and alternatives to abortion.”
State law establishing the Ohio Parenting and Pregnancy Program further specifies entities supported by the program can not be “involved in or associated with any abortion activities, including providing abortion counseling or referrals to abortion clinics, performing abortion-related medical procedures or engaging in pro-abortion advertising.”
Funding future
In the federal budget bill, the women’s health clinic funding prohibition targeted at abortion providers lasts for one year, but leaders of Ohio clinics say the state measure could mean more longterm cuts.
The state-level Medicaid ban being proposed by conservative, anti-abortion legislators, along with federal-level cuts, would cut funds that don’t go toward abortion services in the first place.
“By introducing all of these bills to cut Planned Parenthood out of Medicaid, it does not impact abortion at all, it impacts every other service that keeps people healthy,” said Erica Wilson-Domer, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio.
Wilson-Domer said more than 40% of her affiliate’s patients are covered by Medicaid, and the “vast majority” of the services provided to those patients are office services. Those services include well visits, contraception services and infection checks, among other non-abortion care.
Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio has already announced staffing reductions after “mounting attacks from the Trump administration, including the loss of Title X funding and Medicaid defunding through the federal reconciliation bill.”
In announcing the reduction in force, the greater Ohio affiliate said the federal funding losses represent a $10 million drop in annual funds.
“Without a reduction in force, PPGOH could cease to exist, leaving over 50,000 patients without access to birth control, gender affirming care, abortion and a myriad of other essential health care services,” Wilson-Domer said in the announcement on Aug. 4.
Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio Region also announced changes because of federal funding cuts, including the closure of a clinic in Springfield and another in Hamilton. Neither of the closed facilities provided abortion services.
Wilson-Domer and her fellow Planned Parenthood affiliate leader Nan Whaley in Southwest Ohio both said federal funds have never paid for abortion services. But the services they do provide to low-income and underinsured patients make them “uniquely positioned to have a better impact on maternal and infant mortality,” Wilson-Domer said.
“To take us out of Medicaid is just completely taking away any women’s health care options for those communities, and it will completely exacerbate this crisis,” Wilson-Domer said.
Republicans who sponsor and support anti-abortion measures are missing the point of the care, and taking away other services while they attempt to stifle abortion services, according to abortion rights advocates in Ohio.
“Our policies are not promotion of abortion, our policy is to make sure every person has bodily autonomy,” Wilson-Domer said. “We will do what we need to do to help you with whatever decision you’ve made.”
Abortion rights advocacy group Abortion Forward said budget cuts on the state and federal level don’t show the prioritization of children, and in fact could create more infant and maternal mortality problems.
The group’s deputy director, Jaime Miracle, said the state’s time would be better spent supporting all facilities who are working to address the problem, rather than cutting them down.
“These actions speak louder than his words when (DeWine) continues to fund unproven, deceptive programs instead of real providers with a track record of success,” Miracle told the Capital Journal. “To really help families in our state, Ohio must invest in improvements to prenatal care, home visiting programs with a proven track record of success, and respect and support people seeking abortion care.”
