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Health care advocates and providers in Philadelphia say low-cost options for routine reproductive and sexual health services are at risk following federal Medicaid cuts aimed at abortion providers.
Leaders of local Planned Parenthood affiliates say their financial situations have become dire less than a year after Congress passed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which blocks Medicaid payments for routine exams, cancer screenings and other care at facilities that also perform abortions.
“A Philadelphia without Planned Parenthood is no longer a hypothetical, it is a very real possibility,” Signe Espinoza, vice president of public policy and advocacy at Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania, told City Council members at a public hearing Monday.
The local affiliate serves about 20,000 patients in Greater Philadelphia, many of whom have Medicaid, a health insurance program for people with low incomes.
Since the federal cuts took effect, Espinoza said centers have been absorbing much of the costs for the services they provide. It’s an unsustainable solution, she said, “and the stakes are incredibly high.”
Organization leaders and advocates are calling on the city to provide some money to fill the funding gap and preserve services. Espinoza warned that a significant reduction of services or closures would displace too many patients, many of whom come in for routine gynecological care, cancer screenings and sexually transmitted infection testing.
“There is no health care provider in Philadelphia that can absorb 20,000 patients,” she said. “The infrastructure does not exist.”