Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin Will Resume Abortions

The clinic is prepared before patients arrive Friday, May 27, 2022, at Planned Parenthood’s Water Street Health Center in Milwaukee, Wis. Angela Major/WPR

Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin will resume abortion services in the state nearly a month after pausing them due to cuts to Medicaid under President Donald Trump’s tax and spending law.

Previously, the organization offered medication and surgical abortions at two clinics in Madison and Milwaukee, and medication abortions at a clinic in Sheboygan. On October 1, it stopped those services, citing a provision in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that bans “prohibited entities” that offer abortions from getting Medicaid reimbursements for one year.

Now, Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin is relinquishing its status as an “Essential Community Provider” with the Department of Health and Human Services, a move it says makes the organization no longer a “prohibited entity” under federal law, and therefore not barred from receiving Medicaid funds.

The cuts are currently being challenged in federal court by Planned Parenthood Federation of America and numerous state attorneys general, including Wisconsin’s. Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin said in a statement that Health and Human Services attorneys said in a September filing that family planning organizations could continue billing Medicaid by relinquishing their Essential Community Provider status.

Planned Parenthood officials say the change allows them to resume abortion services.

“At a time when politicians are working to take away health care from women and families, we are fighting back with everything we have,” Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin CEO Tanya Atkinson said in a statement.

For nearly a month, just two abortion clinics remained operational in Wisconsin. Both are in Milwaukee and were not affected by the Medicaid cuts.

For at least the last decade, Planned Parenthood has provided the large majority of brick-and-mortar abortion care in Wisconsin, according to researchers at the Collaborative for Reproductive Equity at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The number of Wisconsinites ordering medication abortion pills from providers in other states has also been growing in recent years.

Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin treats patients with Medicaid and private insurance, as well as uninsured and underinsured people who rely on a sliding fee scale or other financial support, according to a statement.

Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin to resume abortion services was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.