Planned Parenthood Clinics Start Turning Away Medicaid Patients

() Two regional Planned Parenthood affiliates have stopped accepting Medicaid, citing a provision in the Republican-backed tax-and-spending bill signed into law earlier this month. The move has sparked legal challenges, patient confusion and warnings of widespread health care disruption.

Planned Parenthood locations in Washington, D.C., and Colorado posted notices this week alerting patients that Medicaid coverage is no longer accepted at their health centers.

“With the passage of the reconciliation bill into law on July 4, 2025, Planned Parenthood health centers, including Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington, D.C. (PPMW), can no longer accept Medicaid coverage for care,” the D.C. location announced. “This ‘defund’ provision is a cruel, harmful, and inhumane law that will strip health care from thousands of people in the D.C. metropolitan region and millions across the country.”

The Colorado affiliate issued a similar update.

Court temporarily blocks provision

Planned Parenthood filed a federal lawsuit July 7, just days after the bill’s passage, arguing that the defunding provision violates multiple constitutional protections.

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani agreed to temporarily block the provision, allowing Medicaid reimbursements to continue for two weeks while the case proceeds.

Though the Planned Parenthood Federation of America provides national oversight, the organization is made up of independently operated affiliates that deliver care at the local level. In the aftermath of the ruling, affiliates have responded in different ways some resuming Medicaid services, while others remain cautious amid ongoing legal uncertainty.

Planned Parenthood of Florida announced it had resumed scheduling Medicaid patients following the judge’s order.

“Over the weekend, we had to cancel appointments for patients that used Medicaid coverage to receive care at our health centers, which was an incredibly painful and stressful process for the patients and the staff,” said Michelle Quesada, vice president of communications for the Florida affiliate. “It’s a rapidly changing situation.”

Abortion rights advocates call it a “backdoor abortion ban” and argue the “defund” provision’s sole purpose is to “stop covering abortion care and end access altogether.”

Planned Parenthood CEO responds

The move has drawn widespread criticism from reproductive rights advocates, who argue the provision disproportionately affects low-income patients who rely heavily on Medicaid for various essential health care services.

“We are facing down the reality that nearly 200 health centers are at risk of closure. We’re facing a reality of the impact on shutting down almost half of abortion-providing health centers,” Planned Parenthood’s CEO Alexis McGill Johnson told The Guardian last week.

“It does feel existential. Not just for Planned Parenthood, but for communities that are relying on access to this care.”