GOP Defunding Push Threatens Birth Control Access for 12 Million Women

The research underscores the reliance of the American healthcare safety net on Planned Parenthood, which served roughly one-third of the 4.7 million patients seeking affordable family planning in 2020. Current GOP efforts to remove these facilities from the reimbursement network would disproportionately impact the Western United States, where 4.1 million women across 94 counties face the loss of services. Nearly 30 counties nationwide could be left without any publicly funded contraceptive provider at all.

Political friction has already yielded tangible results. Since the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act—which included a temporary ban on Medicare reimbursements for the organization—nearly 30 Planned Parenthood health centers have shuttered. Alexis McGill Johnson, president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, described the potential for further closures as catastrophic, noting that there is no structural replacement for the essential care these clinics provide to families and communities.