Community Health & Wellness

Planned Parenthood will keep clinics open, despite ‘existential’ funding loss

Posted on September 4th, 2025 By: Conor Wilson

Courtney Normand, the Washington director of Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates, said the nonprofit has not discussed plans to close any of its clinics in the state, including the health center on Riddell Road in Bremerton.

Anxiety though remains high. Besides routine difficulties facing health care providers, a federal law threatening its Medicaid revenues creates a unique pain point for the nation’s largest provider of reproductive health services.

“It’s existential right now,” Normand said during an interview last week inside the Bremerton Health Center, one of 30 Planned Parenthood locations in the state.

“Everything is compounding,” she said.

Only location on peninsula

The Bremerton health center is the only Planned Parenthood location on the Kitsap Peninsula and offers a range of services, including abortion. Outside Bremerton, the nearest Planned Parenthood centers are in Tacoma and Port Angeles.

All this comes three years removed from the Dobbs decision, a Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade and ended federal protections for abortion. That decision has driven many out-of-state patients to Washington clinics, officials say.

The Planned Parenthood clinic on Riddell Road in Bremerton. Photo by Meegan M. Reid/Kitsap Sun

Planned Parenthood is anticipating less funding for abortion services after Washington legislators cut funding for the Abortion Access Project by more than half in response to a budget shortfall.

The bigger concern comes from the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill, a sweeping tax bill signed by President Donald Trump earlier this year. The legislation imposes a one-year ban on state Medicaid payments to any health care nonprofit that offers abortion and received $800,000 or more in federal Medicaid funding in 2023.

The policy ostensibly targets Planned Parenthood, with the nonprofit appearing to be one of only a few providers to meet the narrow criteria.

State lawsuit

That restriction is currently paused pending litigation. Planned Parenthood Federation of America and a coalition of 24 states, including Washington, separately sued the Trump Administration. Washington Attorney General Nick Brown argued the law unlawfully targeted Planned Parenthood and would lead to widespread disruptions in essential health care.

“The broad attempt to cut Washingtonians’ access to Planned Parenthood means more unscreened cancers, more untreated sexually transmitted diseases, and more unintended pregnancies,” Brown said in a statement announcing the lawsuit in July.

Planned Parenthood is calling the move a backdoor abortion ban that would “defund” many of its clinics. Should it survive litigation, officials estimate it will force about 200 clinics to close, mostly in states where abortion is legal.

Medicaid, the state-federal insurance program for individuals on low incomes and with disabilities, covers the cost of services for a large number of Planned Parenthood patients, including about 40% at the Bremerton clinic. Losing it would put many clinics in a difficult financial position.

U.S. Rep. Emily Randall, D-Bremerton, talks about the impact of the loss of federal funding to Planned Parenthood in Bremerton on Friday, Aug. 28, 2025. Photo by Meegan M. Reid/Kitsap Sun

Federal law has for decades barred using federal Medicaid dollars on abortion, but it does cover other services. Seventeen states also use their state contributions to Medicaid to cover abortion, including Washington, according to the nonprofit health policy research organization KFF.

Randall tours Planned Parenthood clinic

During a tour of the Bremerton clinic last Friday, U.S. Rep. Emily Randall, a Democrat representing the state’s Sixth District, said losing any clinic in Kitsap would be detrimental, as the region already faces a shortage of routine care.

But Randall argued the Planned Parenthood clinic plays a unique role, offering nonjudgmental care to women and individuals who identify as queer or transgender.

“The patients Planned Parenthood sees are being targeted,” she said. “Here they can have their dignity.”

Randall, who previously worked at Planned Parenthood, also stressed that the Republican tax bill puts abortion access at risk, even in Washington. Although state officials continue to staunchly support the right, Randall argued the financial pressure facing these clinics could render those protections mute.

“[I am] so proud to have the rights we do,” she said. “But what are rights without access?”