RICHFIELD, Minn. — The women’s health organization Planned Parenthood is closing four Minnesota clinics — two months after President Trump froze federal grants. “We have been fighting to hold together an unsustainable infrastructure as the landscape shifts around us,” said Ruth Richardson, the organization’s national leader. About 140 clinics are affected nationally. Being closed in Minnesota are clinics in Alexandria, Apple Valley, Bemidji and Richfield. Abortions were provided only at Richfield. The clinics were geared to low-income women. Services included cervical cancer screenings, testing for sexually transmitted diseases, and birth control counseling. Richardson said counseling would continue as funds allow through telemedicine conferencing. Remaining in operation are Planned Parenthood clinics in Brooklyn Park, Duluth, Eden Prairie, Mankato, Minneapolis, Rochester, St. Cloud and St. Paul.
Why Trump’s freeze
The freeze initiated by President Trump cut off $27.5 million in grant funding to Planned Parenthood clinics across 20 states. Another $40 million was cut off to clinics operated by other organizations. Trump said the clinics failed to comply with his orders to end nondiscriminatory policies. Planned Parenthood has a long history of diversity, equity and inclusion policies that Trump is trying to outlaw. Critics called the freeze misogynistic. On a broader scale, critics said, the cuts fit into the Trump strategy to redistribute the nation’s wealth from ordinary people to his favored wealthy class.
National impact
An estimated 846,000 patients, many of low income, are losing access to women’s health services, according to the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association. Some providers have considered legal action to restore federal funds. Others have mounted campaigns for state funding and private donors. Some, like Planned Parenthood, have dipped deeply into emergency funds.