STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Gov. Kathy Hochul vowed to protect Planned Parenthood and its patients after congress usurped the organization’s ability to provide care to Medicaid recipients.
“Washington Republicans have shown time and again that they’ll stop at nothing to undermine women’s health care and restrict access to reproductive rights,” Hochul said in a statement. “In the face of Congressional Republicans voting to defund Planned Parenthood, I’ve directed the state to fund these vital services, protecting access to health care that thousands of New Yorkers rely on. I will always stand up for reproductive rights and the health care that New Yorkers deserve.”
In New York state alone, Planned Parenthood operates a network of five subdivisions that is made up of 47 locations.
Among these 47 locations — spread across Greater New York, the Hudson Peconic, Central and Western New York, North Country, and the Upper Hudson — more than 200,000 patients are treated. Of this number, 100,000 are Medicaid recipients.
“Over 60 percent of Planned Parenthood health centers are in rural or medically underserved areas, and these centers are often the only option available to New Yorkers living in these rural areas. They are a critical source of affordable health care to Medicaid and non-Medicaid recipients,” the statement explained.
Congressional representatives who voted for H.R. 1 — better known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act — allowed for “a one-year prohibition on federal Medicaid funding for organizations that provide abortions and that received $800,000 or more in federal Medicaid funds in 2023.”
In response to this, Hochul is “allocating state funds to cover lost federal funding to Planned Parenthood affiliates in New York,” the statement detailed.
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