California this week became the fourth state to allocate taxpayer dollars to support Planned Parenthood in a move to offset the loss of federal funding established by Republicans and President Donald Trump.
California taxpayers will give Planned Parenthood more than $140 million to keep 109 clinics open, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced on Thursday. The state joins Washington, Colorado, and New Mexico, which have also come to the abortion provider’s aid with state funding.
“California is a reproductive freedom state, and this latest investment continues to show our belief in protecting access to essential health care in times of distress,” Newsom said in a statement. “Trump’s efforts to defund Planned Parenthood put all our communities at risk as people seek basic health care from these community providers.”
Planned Parenthood reportedly was planning to eliminate primary care at clinics in Orange and San Bernardino counties starting in December. Five other clinics in the Bay Area, Santa Cruz, and Central Valley, shuttered in recent months over federal efforts to defund the organization.
“The Planned Parenthood affiliates in California are grateful to Governor Newsom and our allies in the Legislature for taking this necessary step to keep Planned Parenthood health centers open and able to provide critical services as they weather the impacts of the federal defund,” said Jodi Hicks, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California.
Right to life advocates have criticized Planned Parenthood for decades over its abortion services, often located in poor neighborhoods. A 1977 a law banned federal funding for abortions, but critics have alleged the money the organization receives for other clinical services helps fuel the abortion procedures.
The spending bill passed this year by Republicans and signed by the president prohibits Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid money for its services, not only for abortions but also for mammograms, pap smears, birth control, and sexually transmitted infection testing.
Dr. Janet Jacobson, medical director of the clinics in Orange and San Bernardino counties, told CalMatters the federal actions are “destroying our primary care program.”
“It’s inhumane to take away people’s health care,” Jacobson said. “Folks that have Medi-Cal should be able to see the provider of their choice for primary care.”
Planned Parenthood needs about $27 million a month to operate all its local facilities, Hicks told CalMatters. The organization claims abortions account for less than ten percent of its services.
“President Trump and Congressional Republicans’ targeted attacks on Planned Parenthood are not only unconscionable, but a deliberate effort to undermine California’s values and promise of reproductive freedom,” Hicks charged in her statement. “Today’s funding commitment is critical to protecting vulnerable Californians’ constitutional right to access reproductive health care.”
Lawmakers in Oregon and New York are also reportedly considering giving public money to the organization.
Contributor and veteran journalist Lowell Cauffiel is the author of the New York Times best seller House of Secrets and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
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