The following article was originally published in the Ohio Capital Journal and published on News5Cleveland.com under a content-sharing agreement.
News of a block in a Trump administration attempt to “defund” Planned Parenthood won’t impact a decision to close clinics in Southwest Ohio.
Two clinics in the Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio Region will still close, despite a federal judge’s ruling on Monday indefinitely allowing Medicaid reimbursements to continue to health clinics nationwide who provide abortion services. The ruling went against the Trump administration’s Congress-approved tax bill, which sought to end Medicaid payments to providers of abortion for a year.
The District Court judge in the case had already issued a preliminary injunction earlier in July saying the health clinic organization had a “substantial likelihood of success” on an argument that its equal protection rights and First Amendment rights were being violated.
The national Planned Parenthood organization have said the cuts to funding could mean closures of clinics across the country, even those who don’t provide abortion services.
Two clinics in Springfield and Hamilton were among those citing the Medicaid cuts as the reason they would be closing their doors. Those clinics did not provide abortion services, focusing instead on primary care services and screenings for cancer and sexually transmitted infections.
Local clinics were preparing to tighten their belts when news of potential budget cuts started coming out of D.C. earlier this year, as the third anniversary of the overturning of Roe v. Wade came around as well.
Medicaid funding in Ohio was never used for abortion services, according to Nan Whaley, the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio. When she announced the closure of the two clinics in her area in mid-July, she said the decision to cut the Medicaid funding specifically for clinics like the ones she leads was “driven by politics, not by public health” and “harms real people who already face immense barriers to care.”
The two clinics that do provide abortion services in that area, located in Dayton and Cincinnati, will remain open and still provide the same services, Whaley said at the time.
While the Southwest Ohio affiliate expressed relief at the court decision, a spokesperson told the Capital Journal on Monday it would not impact the closure decision.
“From the Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio perspective, unfortunately for many smaller affiliates, the risk of the federal government requesting back pay if the injunction expires is still too great,” said Maya McKenzie, communications manager for the Southwest Ohio clinics.
McKenzie said the first course of action the U.S. Department of Justice promised should they ultimately win the lawsuit was to request “fund repayment” from the organization.
“We’re trying to mitigate that risk to preserve our capacity to offer the other critical services southwest Ohioans and hundreds of patients from the South come to us for, that cannot be accessed anywhere else,” according to McKenzie. “In many states, and for affiliates operating in small communities like ours, we are the only option for folks seeking services like abortion and gender affirming care.”
The Southwest Ohio provider previously said no other closures are anticipated as a result of the funding reductions. No other Planned Parenthood affiliates in the state have announced closures due to the funding cuts.
The Greater Ohio affiliate of the organization said it will continue to accept Medicaid patients for certain services, adding that the federal decision “ensures that thousands of Planned Parenthood patients continue receiving necessary and life-saving care, and that Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio health centers can continue to provide public health services to our patients.”
The group will not be providing “long acting reversible contraceptives,” like the Nexplanon implant and intrauterine devices, “given the Trump administration’s position in the litigation that Planned Parenthood affiliates would have to pay back claims if the court’s order is reversed on appeal.”
“We will continue to monitor the case closely and make decisions on the care we can provide going forward, taking into account the financial risks to the organization,” the affiliate said in a statement to the Capital Journal.
