2 of 3 Planned Parenthood clinics in San Mateo County close

“It’s really devastating to have to make this decision, and the consequences to our patients are what is most harmful,” Andrew Adams, Planned Parenthood Mar Monte chief of staff, said. “It was really, really hard for our staff to have to say goodbye. These are trusted providers and neighbors to patients they provide care to.” 

The Redwood City Planned Parenthood, the last remaining location in the county, still has its doors open and remains ready to offer patients integral reproductive healthcare like STI testing, birth control and abortion services. 

All Planned Parenthood Mar Monte locations — which are spread across Northern California and Nevada in 30 remaining locations — will no longer offer family medicine, behavioral health and prenatal care as a result of the new funding restrictions, Adams said. 

Around 80% of patients who use Planned Parenthood Mar Monte’s services are on Medicaid, known in California as Medi-Cal. Not receiving Medicaid payment reimbursement for only one week meant the organization took $1.7 million in losses, Adams said. 

“In order to pay staff and keep our doors open, we need to get paid for the services we provide,” he said. “That’s why, in order to keep as many doors open as possible, we did close those five health centers.” 

Aside from locations in San Mateo and South San Francisco, Planned Parenthood facilities in Santa Cruz, Gilroy and Madera have also shut down. Newer and bigger facilities were selected to remain open.

They’re the first in the state to shutter their doors as a result of the new Medicaid restrictions — and the closures represent a larger threat to women’s health services, Assemblymember Diane Papan, D-San Mateo, said. 

“This is an assault on women’s health, because they’re taking away services,” she said. “At this point, we crossed over from insensitivity and threat to all-out assault.” 

The California Legislature did parse out $172 million in family planning and women’s health services for the upcoming 2025-26 budget, Papan said, but the state’s own financial woes might make further investment in health care providers like Planned Parenthood challenging. 

“You’re talking about real, fundamental care for women it really strikes at the heart of things,” she said. “There’s care that is [specific] to a woman’s body that they provide. They serve a lot of underserved communities, young females. To think that care is being eliminated in our backyard is very tough news.” 

Since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, Planned Parenthood has been attempting to keep its doors open and its business model feasible among an increasingly hostile environment for abortion providers and concerns around the future of federal funding for the organization. 

That includes a variety of legal challenges — the federal arm of Planned Parenthood is currently attempting to claw back the federal Medicaid reimbursement funding it’s been denied in states like California, and a decision is still pending.

But as attacks on women’s bodily autonomy escalate, Adams said Planned Parenthood will continue the fight regardless. 

“We know we have three and a half years of the Trump administration. This is just the next iteration of the assault we were planning for,” he said. “We know patients deserve the type of health care Planned Parenthood provides.”