Planned Parenthood will consolidate some of its clinics and eliminate dozens of locations in the Upper Midwest, the organization's leaders announced Tuesday
Across Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska and the Dakotas, 36 positions will be eliminated from Planned Parenthood's North Central States, including nine incumbents and 27 open positions.
The decision comes 19 months after the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, ending the constitutional right to abortion and returning the power to regulate abortion to individual states. Since then, two dozen states, including the Dakotas and Nebraska, have moved to ban abortions or further limit the procedure to earlier in pregnancy than Roe standards. Courts have so far blocked the bans in three of those states, including Iowa.
The nonprofit's leaders blamed the post-Roe landscape as well as other factors such as rising costs and provider shortages for its decision.
“As volatility in the healthcare landscape continues and the cost of providing care rises, we have a duty to constantly change and adapt so we can continue to meet the basic needs of our patients and community,” said Ruth Richardson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood North Central States, in a statement. “This decision was not easy. Planned Parenthood is focused on building a footprint that is sustainable over the long term, with reliable access to both medication and procedural abortion in every state where it is legal.”
The agency will also consolidate some of its more than a dozen health centers across the five-state region, while expanding abortion access and the size of other health centers.
Next year, the health center in Woodbury will be consolidated into the Rice Street Health Center in St. Paul.
Planned Parenthood emphasized that while its number of locations will decrease, the restructuring will increase its capacity for in-person and virtual patients. The flagship Vandalia Health Center in St. Paul will increase abortion patient capacity and appointment options. The health center expansion in Omaha will increase exam rooms from four to 12, and the consolidation of two health centers in Des Moines will expand abortion appointments to three to four days a week.
“It's obviously a concern any time we lose providers or locations or access to service, especially at a time when we've become kind of an island in Minnesota,” said Sen. Lindsey Port, DFL-Burnsville, chair of the Reproductive Freedom Caucus. “I'm looking at this in the context of the broader health care crisis we're in. Consolidations, layoffs, difficulty hiring: These issues exist throughout the health care world at this point. Reproductive health care clinics in Minnesota are not just abortions. providers, they're healthcare providers. It's an integral part of our lives.”
Abortion opponents said Planned Parenthood's decision was more about shifting its resources to provide more abortions, especially in Minnesota communities that border limited-access states.
“Planned Parenthood is a business, and the decisions they make are business decisions, not moral decisions,” said Tim Miller, executive director of Minnesota-based PLAM Action, a sister organization of Pro-Life Action Ministries. “I don't buy for one second that their performance is seeing a critical situation. It's a strategic business decision. They're looking at the upcoming market and refocusing, as any smart business would.”
Planned Parenthood's decision comes less than three weeks after a newly formed union representing 430 Planned Parenthood North Central States employees reached a tentative labor agreement with management. The new contract will provide a 15-year pay scale for union jobs, a minimum wage increase of 4.5 percent in the first year and 11.75 percent overall over three years. Planned Parenthood's lowest-paid employees will receive a 17 percent pay raise in the first year of the deal.
