Maine clinics also hit by cuts that targeted Planned Parenthood plan to
halt primary care
[October 02, 2025]
By PATRICK WHITTLE and GEOFF MULVIHILL
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A network of medical clinics that serves
low-income residents in Maine said Wednesday it is shutting down its
primary care operations because of Trump administration cuts to abortion
providers.
President Donald Trump’s policy and tax bill, known as the “ big
beautiful bill,” blocked Medicaid money from Planned Parenthood, the
nation’s largest abortion provider. The parameters in the bill also
stopped funding from reaching Maine Family Planning, a much smaller
provider that also delivers other medical services in the mostly rural
state.
Maine Family Planning has informed its nearly 1,000 primary care
patients that it will no longer be providing primary care service
starting Oct. 31, the network said. The loss of Medicaid funding took
about $2 million in reimbursements from the network, and it is no longer
able to sustain primary care, it said.
The network “will continue seeing patients who need family planning
care, regardless of insurance status, for as long as we are able,” Maine
Family Planning said in a statement. The group also provides birth
control, sexually transmitted disease testing, cancer screenings and
routine OBGYN visits, it said.
“We were caught in this net because we provide abortion care as part of
a full range of sexual and reproductive health care at 18 sites. We are
proud to provide that care,” said George Hill, president and chief
executive officer of Maine Family Planning.
Of the 17,535 visits made to Maine Family Planning’s 18 health centers
and mobile medical unit in 2024, 13% were for primary care services,
Hill said.
Maine Family Planning has fought the halting of Medicaid dollars in
federal court. But it suffered a setback in August when a federal judge
ruled against restoring funding during the network's ongoing lawsuit
against the Trump administration. The network appealed to a higher court
but has yet to receive a response. Hill said the legal fight will
continue.
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 Maine Family Planning is one of
three health organizations across the country that the federal
government says is barred from receiving Medicaid reimbursements
until the end of September 2026 under a provision in President
Donald Trump’s tax and spending law. It targets groups that provide
abortion and receive more than $800,000 a year in Medicaid
reimbursements. Medicaid already did not cover abortion.
Like Maine Family Planning, Planned Parenthood has sued in an effort
to restore reimbursements.
Planned Parenthood has said that up to 200 of its clinics might have
to close because of the policy change. Some of its nearly 600
clinics have already shut down. In the past week, its Wisconsin
affiliate announced that it would stop providing abortion, and the
Arizona one took the opposite approach, saying it would halt
Medicaid-funded services.
Julia Kehoe, president and CEO of Health Imperatives, which serves
about 10,000 patients a year in southeastern Massachusetts, said her
organization didn’t realize it was losing Medicaid reimbursements
until the government said it was in an August legal filing.
She said she believed the seven clinics in her group were safe from
the cuts because they are not primarily a reproductive health
organization. The cuts could mean a loss of about $1.8 million a
year.
Instead of changing service offerings, Health Imperatives is working
on getting additional state funding and donations to make up the
difference – and more – with the aim of increasing access to health
care.
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Mulvihill reported from Cherry Hill, New Jersey.
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