Ohio Planned Parenthood, health clinics brace for closures, plan fight ahead
With the three-year anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, abortion rights advocates are looking at a time when funding cuts could spell the closure of clinics and the limiting of reproductive access in Ohio and nationwide.
But local advocates are also resolute in saying health clinics will continue to serve Ohioans, and fight to maintain the rights in the state.
The federal budget reconciliation bill is still being debated, but one provision that has been included would “defund” Planned Parenthood, which the organization says could mean the closure of 200 clinics across the country.
Funding under Title X “family planning” grants could be slashed as well, which would also impact reproductive health clinics.
Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, called the measure a “big bad betrayal of a bill” in a Tuesday news call, and said the funding cuts in the bill “would make it harder, if not impossible, for everyone, everywhere to get an abortion.”
Since the 2022 Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization moved the issue of abortion legality to the states, Ohio has passed a constitutional amendment that in 2023 placed the right to abortion into the state’s founding document, making abortion legal up to viability, as determined by a physician. The measure passed with 57% of voters that November.
But the newest state operating budget, which could be approved by the General Assembly this week, could cause more limits to abortion services via a provision related to Medicaid.
The House and Senate both brought along a measure from Gov. Mike DeWine’s executive budget that would eliminate the Medicaid expansion group from the state’s program if the federal budget contributes less than the 90% it’s paying currently.
Should that contribution drop even 1%, the state budget states the expansion group, which policy experts say accounts for about 770,000 Ohioans, would be dropped from their health insurance.
That would represent 30% to 50% of patients who go to Cincinnati-area Planned Parenthood clinics just to obtain birth control, according to Nan Whaley, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio Region.
For other services, like health screenings, primary care services, specialist referrals, and abortion services, Whaley said patients who lose their Medicaid coverage likely “will go nowhere.”
“It’ll make Ohio less healthy, it’ll make abortions go up in Ohio,” Whaley said. “What’ll happen is the opposite of what (legislative and congressional Republicans) claim to want.”
While clinics will still be able to provide services to those with commercial insurance, the idea that the most vulnerable Ohioans will be without health care strikes advocates even more than threats to their existence that they’ve experienced many times before.
“There aren’t enough words for ‘unacceptable,’ and every Ohio congressperson should be voting ‘no’ and should be fighting for their constituents,” said Lauren Blauvelt, executive director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio. “There’s no cost-savings in taking away people’s insurance.”
For Planned Parenthood and other reproductive health clinics, being the target of potential funding cuts and disapproval by elected officials who oppose abortion rights is nothing new.
“All providers and most non-profits are under attack in a way that they’re not used to in this environment, but we’re used to this,” Blauvelt said.
Clinics are working to continue providing as much care as they can, including providing and hoping to expand virtual health care.
Lexi Dotson-Dufault, executive director of the referral and resource service Abortion Fund Ohio, said her team is beginning to work with telehealth providers, in an effort to expand services and in anticipation of clinic closures, but more importantly so pregnant individuals can get questions answered.
“People are still confused about what care they can access in Ohio, where they can get that care, who’s there to help them access that care,” Dotson-Dufault said.
Once the budgetary decisions have been made, abortion rights advocates are also preparing for another fight: the total abortion ban bill that was recently introduced in the Ohio House.
While Dotson-Dufault, Whaley, and Blauvelt emphasized the unconstitutionality of the bill, which would seek to undermine the reproductive rights amendment, they aren’t taking it lightly.
Blauvelt said she remembers when the six-week abortion ban didn’t have the full support of the legislature or pro-life advocates, but then ended up being signed into law before it was struck down in court.
“Our supporters are not backing down, we are focused and we take this threat seriously,” Blauvelt said. “We expect our lawmakers to do better.”