Planned Parenthood stops accepting Arizona Medicaid as Trump ban takes effect

Arizonans enrolled in AHCCCS, the state’s Medicaid program, will no longer be able to visit their local Planned Parenthood clinic for an STI test or a cancer screening starting this week. 

The organization’s decision to stop accepting Medicaid coverage comes as a provision in President Donald Trump’s fiscal plan barring abortion providers from receiving Medicaid funding goes into effect Wednesday. The prohibition sets a one-year ban on Medicaid funding for any nonprofit health care providers who perform abortions and received more than $800,000 from Medicaid in 2023. 

While Planned Parenthood isn’t specifically mentioned in the GOP spending plan’s language, it is widely viewed as an attempt to defund the organization. One-third of the organization’s revenue comes from state or federal funding, which pays for reproductive health care care services, like contraception and pregnancy tests. Federal law prevents Medicaid funding from being used to reimburse providers for abortions, except for in limited cases involving rape, incest or life-threatening emergencies. 

April Donovan, the interim president of the Arizona branch of Planned Parenthood, criticized politicians for targeting the organization and said that the move to defund the clinics would jeopardize the health care of women across the state who already face significant difficulty accessing routine care. 

Planned Parenthood operates seven clinics in the state, but only four offer abortions. The majority of the clinics are located in the metro Phoenix area, but one is in Tucson and another in Flagstaff, providing more options for women across the state. 

“Let’s be clear, the people who will be most hurt by the administration restricting us from caring for patients with Medicaid coverage are those who already face hurdles to getting the care they need: Black and Latino communities, LGBTQ+ people, people who live in rural or medically underserved areas, and people who have low incomes,” Donovan warned in an emailed statement. 

In 2021, approximately 1 in 10 women used Medicaid to receive family planning services at a Planned Parenthood clinic. Roughly 1.9 million Arizonans, one in four people, receive health care through the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, or AHCCCS.

Over the summer, the prohibition was briefly put on hold after a Massachusetts district judge ruled it likely violates the U.S. Constitution’s “bill of attainder clause”, which forbids Congress from punishing entities without a trial. But that decision was overturned on Sept. 11, with a federal appellate court allowing the Trump administration to move forward with its bid to block Medicaid funds from going to Planned Parenthood. The organization estimates the prohibition could result in the closure of as many as 200 clinics and jeopardize care for more than 1.1 million Medicaid patients.