Fact-check: Have Planned Parenthood clinics been closing down?

Ciara O'Rourke, PolitiFact.com
·5 min read
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Viral Facebook post: Planned Parenthood clinics are “closing down all over the country” because Roe v. Wade was overturned.

PolitiFact's ruling: Mostly False

Here's why: Planned Parenthood has long said that abortion services account for only 3% of the health services its clinics provide across the country. Contraceptive services, by comparison, make up 34%, according to the organization.

The U.S. Supreme Court on June 24 overturned Roe v. Wade, ending federally protected access to abortion and returning power to the states to set their own laws. Since then, where people can access the service in the United States has been severely curtailed.

And some social media posts are suggesting that Planned Parenthood hasn’t been frank about how much the organization relies on abortions for its own financial stability.

"Why are Planned Parenthood clinics closing all across the country if abortion is only ‘3%’ of their business model?" a June 27 Facebook post said.

More:Share your thoughts on court overturning Roe v. Wade

Other Facebook users are sharing a screenshot of a tweet that says: "Why are Planned Parenthood clinics closing all over the country? I thought abortion was only 3% of their business."

These posts were flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed.

We asked Planned Parenthood about the claim, and Lauren Kokum, director of affiliate communications for Planned Parenthood Federation of America, told us that "no Planned Parenthood health centers have closed since the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe."

Providers that offer abortion services are not limited to Planned Parenthood. And there’s no doubt that the Supreme Court’s ruling is leading to the closure of abortion clinics around the country as the residents of some states come under new restrictions and abortion bans.

While there have been news reports of Planned Parenthood clinics suspending or ceasing abortion services in some places, we didn’t find evidence to support the claim that clinics themselves have closed since the ruling.

We did find news reports of some locations closing this year before the ruling was released, and the reasons for these closures varied.

Earlier in June, before the official ruling was released, a Planned Parenthood location in Boise, Idaho, closed. A spokesperson for Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawaii, Alaska, Indiana and Kentucky told the Idaho Statesman that the Boise clinic was one of five clinic closures in that region following "a comprehensive review of all our health centers and patient needs across all six of our states."

The review was prompted by the "likely overturning of Roe v. Wade," the spokesperson said, referencing the May 3 leak of a draft Supreme Court opinion that indicated the court’s action was imminent. The Idaho Press reported the Boise clinic was merging with another Planned Parenthood health center, and that the organization would shift its resources partly to expand telemedicine services.

More:Williamson County protestors respond to Texas' abortion ban following Roe v. Wade reversal

In May, Vermont news organizations reported that five Planned Parenthood locations in Vermont and New Hampshire would be closing following the news of the likely ruling, and that the hours would be expanded at seven other health centers that were remaining open. A spokesperson said the changes were due to staffing shortages, political divisiveness and underfunding, and they were necessary to protect the organization’s long term sustainability, according to Burlington, Vermont, TV news station WCAX.

Another Planned Parenthood health center in Vermont closed in February. Planned Parenthood of Northern New England said then that it "faced challenges delivering care at our Newport health center and the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated these issues."

Elsewhere, Planned Parenthood is opening clinics. After the court’s decision came down, the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette announced a new clinic would be opening in east Oregon, near the border the state shares with Idaho, where abortions will soon be illegal.

Recent news reports about Planned Parenthood are overwhelmingly about abortion services ceasing in states where abortion is — or soon will be — illegal, and clinics in other states bracing for an influx of patients coming from places where they can’t access abortions.

Our ruling

A Facebook post said that Planned Parenthood clinics are "closing down all over the country" because Roe v. Wade was overturned.Planned Parenthood says it has more than 600 health centers. We found some examples of Planned Parenthood clinics shuttering before the ruling. In some cases, news reports noted that the closures were in anticipation of the ruling and that Planned Parenthood was shifting resources to prepare for a post-Roe reality — merging some clinics and opening at least one near the border of a state where abortion will be illegal.

But the suggestion that there’s a widespread closure of Planned Parenthood clinics across the country because they can no longer perform abortions in some states is wrong. And none have closed since the Supreme Court’s ruling.

We rate this claim Mostly False.

Our Sources

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Did Planned Parenthood clinics close after Roe v. Wade was overturned?