Quick Take
The downtown Santa Cruz Planned Parenthood office will remain closed despite a U.S. District court ruling blocking cuts to the national organization from taking effect, area officials said Monday.
The downtown Santa Cruz Planned Parenthood office, which abruptly shut its doors last week, will remain closed despite a federal judge restoring Medicaid reimbursement to the organization nationwide.
Five California offices, including the Santa Cruz location, were closed as part of Planned Parenthood Mar Monte’s efforts to retrench its operations in the face of a multi-million dollar loss in the weeks since Medicaid funds to many of the agencies’ member organizations were frozen July 4 as part of President Donald Trump’s tax and spend bill.
A U.S. District Court judge in Massachusetts issued an injunction on Monday blocking Trump’s cuts from taking effect. However, Planned Parenthood spokesman Andrew Adams said he believes that the Trump administration will ultimately find a way to enact the cuts over the course of the president’s remaining time in office.
The planned cuts would leave Planned Parenthood Mar Monte facing a long-term structural challenge — a projected $100 million deficit — to its Medicaid-financed model of providing healthcare, no matter the outcome of the current litigation over the frozen Medicaid reimbursement, said Adams. The Trump administration has 3.5 years to find ways to cut Medicaid to abortion providers, he said, even if the process is tied up in court.
“Despite this victory today – PPMM [Planned Parenthood Mar Monte] doesn’t believe federal funding for Medicaid (Medi-Cal in California) and for sexual & reproductive health care will be available in the future,” Adams wrote in an email to Lookout Monday.
The downtown Santa Cruz office at 1119 Pacific Ave. served 4,699 patients in the year ending June 30, according to Adams. Planned Parenthood, founded in Santa Cruz in 1971, provided a wide array of health services for low-income residents beyond abortions, such as prenatal care, mental health treatment and family health check-ups.
Local healthcare providers who rely on Medi-Cal funding to reimburse their work decried the cuts after Trump’s bill passed July 4, warning of up to 1.3 million people losing their Medi-Cal.
Other community health providers who are facing steep cuts in Medicaid reimbursement could also face potential layoffs and closures in the coming months as well. About 80% of Planned Parenthood Mar Monte’s patients use Medi-Cal, Adams told Lookout last week. For Santa Cruz Community Health, another first-stop healthcare provider who serves people regardless of their ability to pay, the number is 70% of patients.
About 30% of people in Santa Cruz County are enrolled in Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid, and $1 billion is spent annually, according to research done by UC Berkeley.
“Defunding Planned Parenthood is an unconstitutional attack that will decimate abortion access nationwide and harm patients who use Medicaid,” wrote Adams. “We will not back down, but we must have the resources to continue this fight while keeping as many doors open to patient care as possible.”
He added that Planned Parenthood Mar Monte is “strategically planning for a sustainable business model that will keep as many doors open as possible – without the security of federal funding for Medicaid reimbursement.”
The Trump administration banned Medicaid money from funding abortions or going to clinics that accept more than $800,000 in Medicaid money annually as part of an effort to defund Planned Parenthood in what’s known as Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.” Federal money was already prohibited from going toward funding abortions since 1977 but states could fund the procedure, and critics said Medicaid reimbursement was being abused for that purpose.
In response, the Federated Planned Parenthood, representing Planned Parenthood nationwide, sued to block the federal cuts. It argued the threshold of $800,000 singled out Planned Parenthood in violation of its right to free speech under the First Amendment.
A U.S. District Judge agreed that the provision targeted Planned Parenthood, violated the organization’s rights and constituted a “denial of equal protection.” The court’s injunction Monday morning blocked the federal government from suspending Medicaid money to Planned Parenthood’s network while litigation is ongoing. Last week, the same judge filed a limited injunction allowing Medicaid money to be spent only at the Planned Parenthood clinics that did not offer abortions.
Planned Parenthood Mar Monte wrote in a statement the case may very well go to the Supreme Court, “which we know is adversarial towards Planned Parenthood.”