Planned Parenthood clinic closes in Madera due to ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ cuts

The nation’s largest Planned Parenthood affiliate announced Thursday that cuts to Medicaid have forced it to close five of its California clinics, including the one in the city of Madera.

Mar Monte Planned Parenthood says the closures are a result of a provision in President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” prohibiting Medicaid reimbursements for nonprofit healthcare organizations that perform abortions. The other closures of Mar Monte Planned Planned Parenthood facilities include clinics in south San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Cruz and Gilroy.

“It’s a really devastating, horrific consequence that’s directly linked to the Trump administration,” Mar Monte chief of staff Andrew Adams told The Bee on Friday.

Planned Parenthood clinics remain open in Fresno and Merced counties, which Adams said are not under the threat of impacts from the reconciliation bill Trump signed into law July 4. But the closure of the Madera clinic leaves the entire county — which spent two years without an emergency room for adults — with one fewer affordable option for sexual and reproductive healthcare.

Adams says the impacts of a clinic’s closure are more pronounced in the Central Valley because the region already faces one of the nation’s worst ratios of primary care doctors to patients. He said the Madera clinic served 4,306 patients between July 1, 2024, and June 30.

“To reduce healthcare, because of the Trump administration and his allies in Congress, is just devastating for the population in the Central Valley, as well as our staff, who are trusted providers and neighbors in Madera,” Adams said.

Planned Parenthood challenged bill in court

The Planned Parenthood Federation of America, which represents 47 affiliates, says the “Big Beautiful Bill” targets the organization.

It filed a federal lawsuit challenging the provision that defunds clinics that perform abortions. Though most Medicaid cuts will not take effect until 2027, the provision placed an immediate one-year ban on Medicaid payments to federally-designated “essential community providers” that perform abortions and received more than $800,000 from Medicaid in 2023.

This week, a federal judge allowed parts of the law to proceed, impacting the Medicaid funding of many Planned Parenthood clinics.

In a Friday statement to The Bee, U.S. Rep. Adam Gray, D-Merced, said the GOP-led reconciliation bill will “devastate our healthcare system in the Valley.” Gray, who voted against the bill, said its overall cuts to Medicaid threaten healthcare for more than 60,000 people in his district, which stretches from Madera to Modesto.

“Rural hospitals, already stretched to capacity, will struggle to meet the needs of our community and may even face closure in the near future,” Gray said. “Our nursing homes will have fewer beds available. Specialized health clinics like Planned Parenthood will close, leaving folks with no access to life-saving screenings and treatment.”

Impacts of closure in Madera

Madera County Supervisor Leticia Gonzalez told The Bee on Friday that the Planned Parenthood closure is “not just about abortions, but about affordable healthcare.”

“We were already an underserved area, and it’s just going to widen already existing health disparities,” she said.

Adams said the Madera clinic provided gender-affirming care and a full range of sexual reproductive healthcare. That includes birth control, wellness exams and testing and treatment for sexually-transmitted diseases.

Though Mar Monte Planned Parenthood health centers see patients of all ages, patients most impacted by the Madera clinic’s closure will be Latinos between the ages of 18-30, he said.

“They’re people who just need health care when they need it,” Adams said. “They come to Planned Parenthood because they know it’s a non-judgmental, safe place to get high-quality healthcare and medication.”

Dr. Simon Paul, Madera County’s public health officer, told The Bee that Planned Parenthood clinics diagnose about 75% of new HIV cases. Simon’s medical specialty is in HIV healthcare.

“A lot of things that don’t have symptoms — like early HIV, early syphilis, cancer screenings, all these things people are comfortable getting their care for at Planned Parenthood,” Simon said. “If you don’t have symptoms and you’re not sure where to go, a lot of those people can fall out of care. I think that’s the real concern.”

Simon said people in Madera can get HIV screenings and treatment through the county. For women’s healthcare, if patients are not able to travel to Planned Parenthood in Merced or Fresno, Simon said they can seek care in Madera County through Camarena Health, a federally-qualified health center.

Adams said some services will still be available to patients impacted by the Madera clinic’s closure through Mar Monte Planned Parenthood’s telehealth program.

This story was originally published July 25, 2025 at 3:44 PM.

Erik Galicia

The Fresno Bee

Erik is a graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism, where he helped launch an effort to better meet the news needs of Spanish-speaking immigrants. Before that, he served as editor-in-chief of his community college student newspaper, Riverside City College Viewpoints, where he covered the impacts of the Salton Sea’s decline on its adjacent farm worker communities in the Southern California desert. Erik’s work is supported through the California Local News Fellowship program.