UPDATE: On Monday, July 28, 2025 a federal judge issued a new protective order, allowing Planned Parenthood clinics to continue collecting Medicaid reimbursements. This includes California’s 114 clinics. The judge found that the policy established in Congress’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act banning Medicaid reimbursements to Planned Parenthood likely violates the organization’s first amendment rights.

Dr. Laura Dalton walks through a Planned Parenthood clinic in downtown Oakland. It has 19 exam rooms with state of the art technology and a new modern layout.

This Bay Area clinic isn’t just the biggest in the state, it’s the biggest in the country.

Dalton is Chief Medical Operating Officer for Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, the nation’s largest Planned Parenthood affiliate. It covers parts of Northern California, the Central Valley, and all of Nevada, serving over 300,000 patients.

She says her patients have access to a variety of services, including contraceptive care, testing for sexually transmitted infections, cancer screenings, and abortions. Some of their care goes beyond sexual and reproductive wellness.

“We have a comprehensive family medicine program,” Dalton explained. “So we see newborns to those 99 plus. We see adults with chronic medical conditions like kidney disease, asthma, diabetes. We do vaccines for children.”

Dalton says this is the type of care that’s at risk now. 

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed into law by President Donald Trump stops Medicaid reimbursements to the organization for a year, effective immediately. 

The bill doesn’t mention Planned Parenthood by name, but it contains language banning Medicaid reimbursements for clinics primarily focused on family planning services and reproductive care, and that also provide abortions. 

Around 80% of Planned Parenthood’s patients in California are on Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program. The organization says they could lose half a billion dollars in reimbursements.

“Right now, you know, services are being provided essentially without being able to receive reimbursement and that’s not sustainable,” Dalton said.

Without these funds, clinics will have to shut their doors. Planned Parenthood Mar Monte has already shuttered five locations.

“No clinic could withstand these kind of economic punishments that they’re doing specifically on Planned Parenthood,” said Jodi Hicks, CEO of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California.

“It’s why we’re suing. It’s why we’ll continue to fight back, but voters should be angry,” Hicks added.

The Planned Parenthood Affiliation of America, along with affiliates in Massachusetts and Utah are suing the Trump administration. In the lawsuit, they say the organization’s being targeted for its political advocacy for abortion access.

While a federal judge in Massachusetts issued a protective order, it doesn’t apply to any of California’s 114 clinics that continue to provide abortion care while the legal battle plays out. The order effectively slashes all of the organization’s federal funding.

A third of Planned Parenthood’s patients nationwide receive their care in California. 

Some Californians support the changes in the Big Beautiful Bill. John Gerardi is the Executive Director of Right to Life of Central California. He says a lot of the services offered at Planned Parenthood aren’t unique and that patients can go elsewhere to access that type of care.

“I want as few dollars going to support abortion as I can,” Gerardi said. “I recognize that other places do abortions, for-profit hospitals, things like that. I do think, though, Planned Parenthood occupies this unique space in American political and cultural and healthcare life.”

But the vast majority of Californians don’t feel this way. 67% of voters passed a constitutional amendment, Proposition 1 in 2022, codifying the right to abortion in the state’s constitution. 

With this in mind, Planned Parenthood proponents say they’re looking ahead to the midterms. That includes Democratic Assemblymember Maggy Krell who represents Sacramento. Before public office, she was an attorney for Planned Parenthood.

“I will be working very hard to ensure that we have a different Congress that values access to health care and specifically access to reproductive health care,” Krell said.

Hicks also says Planned Parenthood will be talking with voters ahead of 2026.

“Every election is a vote for a policy maker that can take away their rights, each and every time,” Hicks said.

Back in Oakland, Dr. Laura Dalton finishes her tour of the Planned Parenthood clinic. She stops behind a counter of reception desks that look out into the waiting area through bulletproof glass.

“So imagine being a healthcare organization that serves as a safety net, takes care of the most vulnerable, is subject to the potential of violence every day and then is now being told that we cannot be reimbursed for the critical services we provide,” Dalton said. “I mean that should be the most devastating thing for people to hear.”

This flagship clinic is less than a year old. Dalton says they hope it’ll serve as a blueprint as they expand operations in other parts of the state.

But for now, she says, those expansion plans are on hold.

Laura Fitzgerald covers California state politics for CapRadio. CapRadio is a partner of The Intersection and CVJC.