Abortion facilities could face mass closures if Trump defunds Planned Parenthood

Donald Trump has committed to vetoing any federal abortion law that makes it to his Oval Office desk, but there are other ways to cripple America’s booming abortion industry. 

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, Trump’s appointees to head the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), have already noted their commitment to defund Planned Parenthood, America’s largest abortion provider. JD Vance had already stated in October that a second Trump administration would defund Planned Parenthood. A press release put out by Planned Parenthood in response to this news on November 21 claimed that Americans were already “taking control of their sexual and reproductive health”: 

On November 6 – the day after the election was called – Planned Parenthood health centers saw:

• vasectomy appointments scheduled increased by 1200%;

• IUD appointments scheduled increased by over 760%;

• birth control implant appointments scheduled increased by 350%;
• and, gender-affirming care appointments scheduled increased by 140%

Planned Parenthood gets roughly $450 million in federal government funds; about 40 percent of their revenue comes from government reimbursements and grants. If the federal government were to completely cut ties with the abortion giant, the cuts could conceivably sink the organization and would almost certainly precipitate the closure of many brick-and-mortar abortion clinics. 

In many states, Planned Parenthood has pushed out smaller abortion providers and acquired a monopoly on abortion provision; if PP clinics were to close, many areas would have no abortion clinics in the area. 

Add to that the fact that, according to a new report, abortion clinics are closing right across the country. The Guardian noted this week that in total, “76 independent abortion clinics have closed since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 … But the closures aren’t limited to states with restrictive laws. Of the 11 clinics that shuttered in the last year, eight were located in states with strong abortion protections.” From the Guardian: 

Over the last year, 11 independent abortion clinics closed, bringing the nationwide total of brick-and-mortar indie clinics in the U.S. to 363, according to a report released on Tuesday morning by the Abortion Care Network (ACN), a network of independent providers. That’s down from more than 500 in 2012.

In the U.S., “independent” abortion clinics are those not linked to a hospital or run by Planned Parenthood. Their closures can have an outsize impact on abortion access, since independent clinics provide almost 60% of all U.S. abortions, according to the ACN report. More than 60% of the clinics that provide abortions after the first trimester of pregnancy are independently run, as are all of the clinics that perform abortions after 26 weeks. If the U.S. network of independent clinics shrinks further, untold numbers of would-be abortion patients will probably be unable to end their pregnancies.

“Whether it’s abortion bans or extremists outside of the clinic or the financial challenges that come along with having to shift services, move a clinic, comply with new regulations – clinics have been under an enormous amount of financial pressure,” Jay Thibodeau, communications director for the Abortion Care Network, told the Guardian. “The relief that they need is not coming right now.” (By “extremists” he means pro-lifers who think it should be illegal to kill babies in the womb.) Just after the Dobbs decision, “millions in donations gushed into the coffers of abortion rights organizations,” but now “much of that money has dried up.”  

While abortion pill usage goes up, abortion clinics are going under, and abortion organizations are running out of cash:  

Over the summer, as donations slumped, the National Abortion Federation (NAF) announced that it was cutting the financial assistance it offered to abortion patients. Rather than covering 50% of the cost of an abortion in most states – and 100% in some states, including Georgia – NAF started covering only 30%. A few weeks later, an organization called Resources for Abortion Delivery ended The Access Fund (TAF), another program that helped pay for abortions, providing about $1m in funding each month, according to the Nation … Another source of strain is fatigue among would-be donors, more than two years after the fall of Roe. The Abortion Care Network has, for several years, run a fundraising campaign called Keep Our Clinics, which helps clinics pay for rent, security, legal costs and other services. In 2022, the campaign raised $5m. In 2023, it raised $3m.

If Planned Parenthood is defended and their clinics begin to close, America will see the growth of what activists call “abortion deserts” – areas where it is difficult or impossible to obtain an abortion. 

Ten years ago, Troy Newman of Operation Rescue penned a pro-life manual titled Abortion Free: Your Manual for Building a Pro-Life America One Community at a Time. Step one? Shut down abortion clinics. It is not nearly enough, and the widespread usage of the abortion pill desperately needs to be addressed. But it is certainly a start.