The Planned Parenthood health centers in South San Francisco and San Mateo have been shuttered since Thursday.
They are two of the five California centers Planned Parenthood Mar Monte says it had to close as a result of the federal spending bill signed into law by former President Trump. That law prohibits Medicaid reimbursements to health care groups like Planned Parenthood that provide abortions.
“So essentially what this means is that we will lose over $100 million over half a year in yearly revenue,” said Lauren Babb, chief public affairs officer for Planned Parenthood Mar Monte.
It’s a major issue for Planned Parenthood’s Mar Monte affiliate, which says more than 80% of its patients use Medi-Cal.
“It is a huge setback in our ability to provide sexual and reproductive health care in California,” said Babb.
Planned Parenthood acknowledges the closure of these five centers may mean people in those areas will struggle to access the same services. Between those locations, the organization said it served 22,000 patients last year.
Those clinics provided medical abortions, but also offered other services such as STD testing, breast cancer screenings and cervical cancer screenings.
“And now what we’ve done is we’ve created a donut hole where there are no resources for people,” said David Canepa, president of the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors.
Canepa is concerned that those most in need won’t have anywhere to go. He plans to talk with other leaders about how they can support Planned Parenthood or provide replacement services.
“I’ll work with the rest of the board to see what we can do to direct our county executive and county attorney to look at what we can do,” said Canepa.
“The reality is the uncertainty of the court challenges makes it difficult to make any additional decisions at this point, but we welcome having conversations with our city, county and state partners,” added Babb.
Planned Parenthood Mar Monte says it still plans to continue operating its 30 other centers across the region and is working to connect patients at the closed clinics with other providers.
Source: NBC Bay Area