Planned Parenthood had already begun to blame the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” for hundreds of facility closures, but that provision is actually not yet in effect, due in part to a judge’s preliminary injunction.
So is this really about a one-year defunding of Planned Parenthood or is this simply a manufactured “crisis” to help line its own pockets and gain more political power?
Key Takeaways:
- Planned Parenthood was born in scandal and has remained in scandal, and continues to disqualify itself from government funding — yet taxpayers are forced to continue funding it.
- Planned Parenthood has received record funding and committed a record number of abortions in its most recently-reported year, yet its legitimate health services have plummeted over the years. Despite committing 400,000 abortions in one year, it continues to claim it is a legitimate community health care provider.
- Planned Parenthood is attempting to blame federal defunding for layoffs and closures, but it had already been intentionally moving toward consolidation and telehealth services (including abortion).
- Multiple affiliates were having trouble remaining financially solvent long before any federal defunding votes.
- Planned Parenthood admits that “patient needs have changed” even in pro-abortion states, yet it is dishonestly blaming federal defunding that is currently blocked for what was seemingly a consolidation/virtual business process already put in motion.
Planned Parenthood claims 200 centers will close due to Defund law (Image: PPFA Facebook)
The Backstory:
On July 4, President Trump signed into law the “One Big, Beautiful Bill,” which included a provision to defund elective abortion providers of federal taxpayer dollars from Medicaid for one year. Planned Parenthood claimed its defunding could result in the closure of up to 200 facilities.
To make up that anticipated lost revenue, Planned Parenthood began targeting abortion-friendly states and using the media to evoke empathy to raise funds. But closures at the abortion corporation have occurred or have been planned for many reasons: decreasing clients, the deliberate shift to telehealth, the unionizing of staff, and multiple scandals, among others.
Planned Parenthood’s past and present have been scandal-ridden:
- It was founded based on eugenic philosophies.
- It has been accused by staffers and management of systemic discrimination.
- It utilizes deceptive marketing
- It regularly violates requirements to maintain taxpayer funding.
- It has failed to report child sexual abuse, protect patient privacy, and has been accused of fraud and abuse.
As if that weren’t enough, the corporation also…
… disseminates unscientific, fabricated and misleading medical information to women considering abortions.
… misinforms women about the development of their preborn babies.
… has a poor standard of care for clients (with former managers stating they treated women “like cattle”).
… offers ultrasound only for women planning to abort.
Defunding Planned Parenthood would seem reasonable, yet an Obama-appointed judge put the defunding of the corporation on hold by issuing a temporary restraining order, which was immediately opposed in a memorandum in opposition by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). On July 21, 2025, the judge issued a temporary injunction, granting Planned Parenthood’s request, forcing taxpayers to keep funding it while its lawsuit against the Trump administration proceeds.
By The Numbers:
Planned Parenthood’s net assets and total liabilities (ending on June 30, 2024) showed has risen to $3.1B, (the highest ever recorded). Yet, thanks to effective marketing, the organization is evoking sympathy, despite only serving an estimated 2% of American women of reproductive age.
According to its own annual reports, its legitimate health care services have plummeted over the years, while abortions have soared to record highs.
Its latest annual reports reveal that it committed over 400,000 abortions while receiving nearly $800 million from taxpayers. This is a 100% increase in abortions and a 291% increase in taxpayer funding (nearly $203M v $792M) since 2000. In addition, “active individual contributors” at Planned Parenthood fell nearly 13% (from 576,000 the prior year) and 31% (from 727,000) in 2021-22.
Since 2000, Planned Parenthood has committed over 7.5M abortions (7,534, 941) while providing just 323,000 prenatal care services, and received nearly $11.4B from taxpayers, accumulating nearly $2.2B in excess revenue.
- Clients: Down nearly 33% from 2006.
- Prenatal Care: Down 77% from its high in 2010.
- Overall cancer screenings: Down over 80% since 2004.
- Breast screenings: Plummeted over 82% since 2000.
- Pap tests: Down over 85% since 2004.
- Adoption Referrals: Fallen over 56% since 2007
- Total services: 33% decrease since 2006.
Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), which do not commit abortions, served over 15 times as many men and women and nearly 10 times as many women as Planned Parenthood in 2023, outnumbering Planned Parenthood centers 25 to 1.
What We’re Seeing:
To avoid being defunded of federal Medicaid dollars, Planned Parenthood would be required to stop committing abortions. Yet its president, Alexis McGill Johnson, told the New York Times, “There is not now, and has never been, a plan to stop providing abortion care in the hopes of preserving federal funding.”
Planned Parenthood often claims that abortion is not a significant part of its business model, but whenever abortion is threatened, somehow that prompts a sudden decision to downsize or lay off staffers, all while playing the victim and raking in millions from empathetic donors.
And that money isn’t always used to help clients.
Former president Cecile Richards said it was her goal to make the corporation into the largest ever “kick butt political organization” – and as a result, the corporation has made many political alliances that benefit its bottom line.
Last year, as Live Action News previously documented, Planned Parenthood Federation of America was accused by those who oversee abortion funds of “siphon[ing] support” and then “funnel[ing] that money into campaign bank accounts.”
In The Red Long Before Defunding
Nationally, Planned Parenthood has been mired in controversies and was already bleeding donors in 2018, losing 400,000 over the course of the year, according to its own reports.
Just days after the one-year defunding measure was signed into law, Planned Parenthood was allegedly sending out pink slips, even though the defunding had already been put on hold. But in truth, some affiliates had financial problems long before the defunding provision was ever proposed.
Back in January of this year, in pro-abortion Illinois where all Medicaid abortions are fully taxpayer-funded, Planned Parenthood announced the planned closures of four of its facilities. It blamed an “increase in patient volume, coupled with low reimbursement rates from insurers and rising costs of providing care,” adding that downsizing staff and closing centers was “difficult but necessary to operate a sustainable organization….” But it also said it would add the abortion pill to its virtual services by way of the PP Direct app, stating that doing so would “expand[] access, reduce[] wait times at health centers and provide[] the right care patients need wherever they are.”
When 70% of its abortion business is via the abortion pill, why wouldn’t they make this move for financial reasons?
Illinois isn’t alone:
- 2017: Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains announced a “strategic decision” to allow it “to maintain a fiscally solvent operation that will keep our doors open to patients in the region for the long term” — by closing facilities.
- 2020: Planned Parenthood of Southern New England announced the permanent closure of two Connecticut centers due to “financial challenges presented by COVID-19.”
- 2022: Planned Parenthood New England (PPNNE) announced a plan to “ensure the organization is sustainable” and announced facility closures due to an $8 million deficit — something other affiliates previously blamed as well. “The shortfall is in addition to a projected $5 million deficit for the fiscal year that ended on June 30,” reported VTDigger.org. Then, earlier this year PPNNE announced the closure of a Vermont facility, writing, “Over the past five years, PPNNE has faced numerous operational challenges in providing reproductive and sexual health care services…”
But planned closures and layoffs at Planned Parenthood didn’t stop there.
What’s Happening:
Planned Parenthood Great Rivers (PPGR) announced on July 18th its plans to “reduce its administrative workforce” by August 1, 2025, claiming politicians are “forcing health care providers” to make challenging choices in order to keep their businesses alive.
“The St. Louis-based organization did not say how many people will lose their jobs. The nonprofit made the announcement… in response to cuts to Missouri’s Medicaid,” reported the local NPR affiliate.
PPGR committed nearly 10,000 abortions in 2022-23 (up from the previous year) and was bleeding operating dollars well before any federal defunding bill. In 2022-2023, PPGR showed a $1.7M surplus — but that was a $5 million drop from 2021-22 and a $3.3M drop from 2020-21.
Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio Region (PPSWOR) announced the upcoming closure of its health centers in Springfield and Hamilton (which do not commit abortions), blaming the closures on the “devastating impact of state and federal political attacks….” PPSWOR added, “While not all positions can be retained, every effort is being made to minimize layoffs and ease the transition for affected employees.”
Nan Whaley, president and CEO of the organization said:
Make no mistake: This was not a decision made by Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio Region. We took every possible step to keep these centers open, but the devastating impact of state and federal political attacks has forced us into this very difficult position.
This is an interesting statement, because while PPSWOR’s 2023-24 annual report showed nearly $13M in revenue, it also showed over $17M in expenses (a $4M deficit) while committing nearly 4,000 abortions. In fact, the affiliate has had financial difficulties for years, failing to break even in 2023 and 2020.
Yet the media predictably (and falsely) blamed the changes on the blocked defunding provision:
Planned Parenthood Mar Monte (PPMM) rejected a memo suggesting that it end abortions, and recently “funded $16 million fund for subsidized care” not covered by state/federal dollars — yet it, too, is threatening layoffs.
Other California Planned Parenthoods have been issuing layoff warnings as well, though the state funds abortions. In May, unionized staffers in the state claimed Planned Parenthood has a “staffing crisis” and “patient safety issues,” adding that management “continues to reject their efforts and commits unfair labor practices in the process.”
“In FY24, PPMM subsidized… 5,786 abortion care patients, totaling more than $4.7 million,” the affiliate’s impact report claimed. But a closer look at the affiliate’s 990 report shows that in recent years, PPMM’s balance sheet was in the red by millions while its net assets remained healthy.
Parenthood Planned Parenthood North Central States (PPNCS) made a “strategic prioritization of cost savings” back in May — prior to its defunding — by choosing to “close and consolidate eight health centers with 66 staff members impacted by layoffs and an additional 37 staff receiving offers of reassignment… resulting in the elimination of 35 additional positions.”
It claimed:
The restructure comes as patient needs and preferences have changed, the broken aspects of our health care system have intensified, the organization’s Minnesota Title X funds have been frozen, and the U.S. House voted to advance a reconciliation package that defunds Planned Parenthood.
Yet, nearly half of Minnesota abortions were recently funded by the state.
Earlier this year, PPNCS “agreed to pay $20,000 to a fired employee to settle a labor dispute with union leaders stretching back nearly two years,” reported the Minnesota Reformer.
Ruth Richardson, the affiliate’s president and CEO, told NBC News, “We have been fighting to hold together an unsustainable infrastructure as the landscape shifts around us and an onslaught of attacks continues.”
Interestingly enough, PPNCS also told NBC it planned to keep investing in telemedicine services and sees 20,000 patients a year virtually.
The Bottom Line:
The fact is that “patient needs and preferences have changed,” as Planned Parenthood admitted — and all of the claims about closures and layoffs is really a political and financial ploy.
Even the increase of competition with FQHCs and online virtual abortion websites could be impacting Planned Parenthood’s bottom line. After all, clients at the abortion corporation have been declining for decades, and the corporation has been intentionally moving toward telehealth services — including chemical abortions, which make up about 70% of its business.
Planned Parenthood isn’t stupid; it knows that consolidating brick-and-mortar facilities will cut costs (after all it’s not the first time the corporation has consolidated on a large scale), and the collective shift toward telemedicine abortion — even in the most pro-abortion states, well before any federal defunding — were planned by the corporation quite some time ago.
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