Planned Parenthood of Michigan says it will continue to offer abortion, despite the Trump administration’s current freeze on Medicaid funding to abortion providers.
But some 14,500 Medicaid patients in the state now must either pay out of pocket, or go elsewhere for the cancer screenings, birth control, treatments for sexually transmitted infections, and other services they previously received from Planned Parenthood.
“For so many people, then they're just not going to get the care that they need,” said Jess Agius, clinical director of telehealth for Planned Parenthood of Michigan. “Whether it was that repeat pap smear because the last one was abnormal, or evaluation of that breast mass, or just their birth control so that they don't get pregnant,”
Medicaid doesn’t cover abortion in Michigan. But it did cover 27,022 STI services, 36,999 birth control cycles and 1,624 cancer screenings at Planned Parenthood of Michigan in 2024, according to a spokesperson.
On Thursday, Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin announced it would pause abortion services because of the funding freeze.
President Trump’s massive tax and spending bill (aka the One Big Beautiful Bill Act) includes a provision banning Medicaid payments to large health care nonprofits that offer abortions. What’s known as the “Defund Provision” is currently being challenged in court by a coalition of more than 20 states, including Michigan.
But earlier this month, a U.S. appeals court ruled in a related suit that the administration could block Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood while the lawsuit plays out. That’s after a lower court had previously ruled the funding had to continue.
This week, the coalition of states filed a request for a preliminary injunction seeking to restore the funding. “If allowed to stay in effect, the Defund Provision will result in irreparable harm to Plaintiff States,” the filing said.
That harm, according to the suit, includes “a material decrease in providers offering such critical care … leading to overwhelmed alternative health centers that cannot absorb those providers’ patients; and those providers’ patients not receiving critical care, including screenings for STIs and cancer,” which in turn would mean increased healthcare costs for states.
Agius, PPMI’s clinical director of telehealth, said there already aren’t enough healthcare providers in Michigan who accept Medicaid. “You're taking that already small pool and limiting it even more,” she said.
Since the Medicaid freeze went into effect, PPMI was initially able to cover the costs for Medicaid patients who had already scheduled appointments through September 22. But staff have been informing all Medicaid patients with new appointments that their care is no longer covered.
Patients are confused, angry, and sad, Agius said. “Some folks are scared. A lot of our gender-affirming [care] folks are really scared, because they don't have a lot of options on where they can go.”
Patient navigators try to offer a list of alternative providers where possible, she said. And some patients can qualify for a sliding-scale fee, at least while those funds are available. But others are left paying out-of-pocket.
“The visit itself can be a couple of hundred dollars,” without insurance coverage, she said. “And if they need labs or prescriptions, things like that, that's going to add on.”
The Medicaid freeze comes after PPMI already closed four health clinics earlier this year, citing financial pressures. That includes the only in-person clinic in the Upper Peninsula that was still offering abortion at the time.
But Agius said she’s confident the organization isn’t going to make the same decision the Wisconsin affiliate did this week to pause abortions in hopes of protecting Medicaid funding for other services.
“Abortion is legal in Michigan, and we will continue to provide it,” she said. “We just need help getting patients to be able to get the [other] services, now that their Medicaid isn't going to work anymore for them at Planned Parenthood.”
