Starting Wednesday, Planned Parenthood Arizona’s clinics will no longer provide services for patients insured through Medicaid. The organization says low-income patients are losing access to cancer screenings and birth control as a result of Trump administration policies.
It was already illegal to use Medicaid funds to pay for abortions. But the Republican tax and spending mega-bill passed this summer included a provision that also bars Medicaid reimbursements for STI checks or other types of reproductive health care performed at some abortion clinics.
Planned Parenthood’s national organization is suing over the provision, saying many of its affiliates risk closing without Medicaid funds. An appeals court earlier this month said the Trump administration could continue to block Medicaid reimbursements for Planned Parenthood clinics while the case proceeds.
Because of the way the state Medicaid program — the Arizona Healthcare Cost Containment System — is set up with different provider networks, only a limited number of AHCCCS members are able to get care at Planned Parenthood clinics. As of 2023, AHCCCS members made up only about 5% of Planned Parenthood Arizona’s total patients, according to the organization.
Shortly after the H.R.1 tax and spending bill passed in July, Planned Parenthood Arizona interim CEO April Donovan said donations may be able to cover the costs of services for AHCCCS members if Planned Parenthood Arizona could no longer receive reimbursements for those patients through Medicaid.
But the organization now says it must suspend those services.
“It was Planned Parenthood Arizona’s hope that we would be able to continue to serve all of our patients,” Donovan said in a statement released Monday. “However, it has recently become clear that due to the retribution and retaliation agenda being aggressively pursued by the Trump administration and its backers, Planned Parenthood Arizona must make the heartbreaking decision to suspend providing essential health care services to our patients insured through Medicaid.”
