The ‘defunding’ of Planned Parenthood on pause for now as legal battles progress

A Planned Parenthood clinic on N. Hamilton St. in Richmond. The facility is one of 16 abortion clinics across Virginia. (Courtesy of the Virginia League for Planned Parenthood)

Federal funding to Planned Parenthood facilities in Virginia and across the nation are tied up in legal battles for the time being. A provision in Congress’ “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” signed by President Donald Trump last week would block Medicaid payments for services at facilities like Planned Parenthood for up to a year. 

Planned Parenthood sued the Trump administration over the provision on Monday and a district court judge granted the organization a two-week restraining order against the federal government.

In the commonwealth, about 700 to 800 patients per month use Medicaid to pay for services, said RaeAnn Pickett, communications director for Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia. The organization’s clinics serve around 25,000 patients overall at its facilities around the state, she said. 

The next set of arguments in Planned Parenthood’s case will occur on July 21 and determine  whether a longer pause will be granted. Meanwhile, The Guardian reported that some clinics in the country have posted notices on their websites alerting patients they can no longer accept Medicaid in order to comply with the law. 

While the national organization has drawn ire from anti-abortion advocates and many Republicans over the years for ending pregnancies, that is just one of the health care services the group provides. Planned Parenthood clinics around the nation also offer cancer screenings, sexual health testing, contraception and breast exams. 

The most recent data from 2023, Pickett said, shows that Virginia’s centers provided contraception to over 12,000 patients, conducted more than 12,000 sexually transmitted disease tests, performed nearly 1,300 breast exams and performed 705 cervical cancer screenings (which yielded 53 abnormal results, prompting patients to seek follow-up care). 

“Every cancer that goes undetected, every STI that goes untreated, every patient who can’t get birth control or abortion care when they need it — all of it is on their hands,” Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia director Jamie Lockart said in a statement as Congress was passing the reconciliation bill. 

Federal law has long prohibited Medicaid coverage from funding abortions, save for specific circumstances. The organization emphasizes that targeting Medicaid funding being used in its facilities will actually affect other components of reproductive health care that low-income families rely on. 

“The Defund Provision is a naked attempt to leverage the government’s spending power to attack and penalize Planned Parenthood and impermissibly single it out for unfavorable treatment,” the organization said in the filing.

Earlier this year, three Planned Parenthood clinics in Virginia were affected by the Trump administration’s freeze on Title X funding — a decades-old federal program that helps extremely low income families access family planning care at little to no cost. That equaled about 11,000 Virginia patients who were subject to higher costs for care. 

In states like Virginia without tight restrictions or bans on abortion, organizations like Planned Parenthood have been a critical access point for travelers seeking abortions.

Pickett said that close to 30% of abortions provided by Planned Parenthood are from out-of-state patients — meaning that about 3,000 people are traveling for care. Overall abortion providers in Virginia have reported a rise in out-of-state patients in recent years, as surrounding states have enacted restrictions or near-total bans on the procedure.

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