Legal win will not change closures for Planned Parenthood

Though the Mar Monte affiliate is continuing to see Medicaid patients and has resumed billing at its remaining 30 locations, reopening the closed locations is too big a risk given the tenuous nature of Planned Parenthood’s ongoing lawsuit against the government, Andrew Adams, Planned Parenthood Mar Monte chief of staff, said. 

“We don’t feel comfortable as an organization using that money to pay staff and keep doors open,” he said. “If the Trump administration eventually wins this case and the injunction is revoked, Planned Parenthood Mar Monte will owe all of that money back.” 

The judge on the case ruled that the provision in Trump’s One, Big Beautiful Bill Act — which prohibits clinics that receive more than $800,000 in Medicaid reimbursements and offer abortions from future state funding — was intentionally targeting Planned Parenthood. 

At Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, where 80% of patients use Medicaid or Medical, resuming reimbursement services is an important gain, Adams said. 

“It certainly is a very important win, in that the court is putting a block on the Trump administration,” he said. “We know we’re in a larger battle.”  

Federal legislators have also been sounding the alarm around the closures in recent weeks. 

In a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. and Medicaid and Medicare Centers Administrator Mehmet Oz, California representatives who’ve had Planned Parenthood locations shut down in their districts demanded the federal government to comply with the injunction. 

“With so much instability in the health care system right now, our constituents should not have to bear the burden of health center closures,” the letter, signed by four representatives including U.S. Rep. Kevin Mullin, D-South San Francisco, read. “You have a duty to ensure that they, along with all Americans, have access to health care, including safe and quality reproductive care.” 

But the threat of future legal action — particularly a Trump administration appeal to the conservative-leaning Supreme Court — means Planned Parenthood Mar Monte will continue with clinic closures at San Mateo, South San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Gilroy and Madera regardless. 

Three services, family medicine, behavioral health and prenatal care, have also been sunset. 

The Redwood City Planned Parenthood, the last remaining location in the county, remains open and is offering patients integral reproductive health care like STI testing, birth control and abortion services. As of now, appointments have still been fairly readily available at that location even with the closures, Adams said. 

“Patients in San Mateo County wanting to receive care in the Redwood City health center are still able to get in and be seen really quickly,” he said.