GOP efforts to defund Planned Parenthood threaten affordable health care services

On Jan. 23, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky introduced a bill called the Defund Planned Parenthood Act, which states, “Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no Federal funds may be made available to Planned Parenthood Federation of America, or to any of its affiliates.”

A press release on Paul’s Senate website links the bill to the “March for Life” event staged by abortion opponents every year in Washington, D.C., and says, “The Defund Planned Parenthood Act would ensure federal tax dollars aren’t going to organizations, like Planned Parenthood, to perform abortions.”

But the reality is that federal funding for abortion has been prohibited by the Hyde Amendment, a restriction included in annual federal spending bills since 1976, except in cases of medical emergencies in which a pregnant woman’s life is at stake.

Instead, what prohibiting federal funding of Planned Parenthood would do is put an end to Medicaid reimbursement to providers of the costs of an array of reproductive health care services for those who wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford them. 

Ryan-Simone Duncan, a 24-year-old resident of Detroit who has been receiving primary health care services from Planned Parenthood for three years, said that, as the child of a parent in the military, she had lived overseas for most of her life and had received health care covered by the military’s TRICARE program. 

“But when I got to America, it got really real, really fast,” Duncan told the Michigan Independent. “Not everything … was accessible to me. I had to actually change my insurance, and I use student insurance, but that still was like taking out of my pockets. But Planned Parenthood was always a place that would work with me, pertaining to my insurance and what I could and couldn’t do.”

The health care services offered by Planned Parenthood include screenings for cervical and breast cancer and sexually transmitted infections, prenatal and postpartum care, and education on contraception. The organization reported that its clinics had seen 2.05 million patients in 2022-2023.

“My experience with Planned Parenthood has always been a very welcoming one. To hear that the potential that it would be no more and that these people won’t have resources that they need is, actually, really terrifying,” Duncan said. “I don’t know where I would be if I didn’t have those resources.” 

Planned Parenthood funding comes from private donations, Medicaid, and federal grants that reimburse clinics for providing services to patients who are unable to pay, the latter through the federal Title X program, established in 1970 to make family planning and reproductive health care accessible. 

Duncan said she’s visited Planned Parenthood clinics for STI testing and treatment, to obtain Plan B emergency contraceptives, and for abortion care. She said her private health insurance did not cover the $500 cost of the abortion, but Planned Parenthood offered her the option of paying over several months.

“They let me do a process where I could pay a little at a time, and that was amazing for me,” Duncan said. “I didn’t know that was a thing, and it definitely benefited me and saved me.” 

In addition to Sen. Rand Paul’s bill, which has seven Republican cosponsors, two pending lawsuits pose a threat to the organization. 

The U.S. Supreme Court is currently considering Kerr v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic (now called Medina v. Planned Parenthood), a case on whether South Carolina can end all Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood. The case was brought by by the Alliance Defending Freedom, an anti-abortion legal group. 

“The Kerr case could hobble Planned Parenthood and dramatically reduce access to family planning services in lots of states,” Elizabeth Sepper, a professor at the University of Texas School of Law and a scholar on religious liberty and health law, told Slate.  

In a statement, Jenny Black, the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, said, “This case is politics at its worst: anti-abortion politicians using their power to target Planned Parenthood and block people who use Medicaid as their primary form of insurance from getting essential health care like cancer screenings and birth control.”

In 2023, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk ordered a jury trial for a lawsuit initially filed in 2021 against Planned Parenthood and its Texas affiliates with the claim that the clinics had defrauded the Medicaid system by continuing to bill the state after it made Planned Parenthood ineligible to participate in Medicaid. Texas officials are seeking $1.8 billion in repayment and civil penalties, an amount that could cripple the organization. 

“Planned Parenthood has always been my safe space,” Duncan said. “So to learn that that space is getting taken or might get taken — I don’t want to speak into existence, but it could be the future — I don’t know what I would do.”