Planned Parenthood will soon close two clinics in the St. Louis region and another in southwest Missouri while expanding hours at other locations.
In November, the organization will close its locations on South Grand Boulevard in St. Louis and near Lindbergh Boulevard in Florissant. In January, it will close its Joplin clinic.
The health care provider will expand hours and services at its clinics in the Central West End and in St. Peters.
It will also focus on offering telehealth services, the organization announced Tuesday.
“These changes also ensure long-term sustainability in the face of repeated attacks from politicians on sexual and reproductive health care,” Planned Parenthood Great Rivers Interim President and CEO Richard Muniz said. “Our commitment has never wavered; Planned Parenthood Great Rivers continues to show up and provide care for the patients on Medicaid who need it.”
Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade in 2022, Missouri law has banned Planned Parenthood and other providers from offering abortions. Planned Parenthood’s Central West End clinic for years was the only remaining clinic offering the procedure after the state’s Republican-led legislature enacted laws that curtailed abortion access.
Planned Parenthood Great Rivers still provides health screenings, gender-affirming care, contraceptive services and STD treatment at its eight clinics in the state.
Planned Parenthood officials said expanding hours in some locations and eliminating other locations better matches patient needs.
Chief Medical Officer Colleen McNicholas said most patients aren’t tied to a single location, but instead travel to an appointment that fits their schedule.
“Historically in healthcare, we thought about access as a physical footprint, another location,” she said. “But what we’ve actually learned is that’s not actually how people are accessing care.”
Data about patient clinic use informed the decisions, she said. For example, of the 45,000 visits to the provider’s clinics last year, around 2,000 visits were to the Joplin location. However, officials said the need for telehealth was greater in southwestern Missouri.
Of the two St. Louis clinics that are closing, McNicholas said there were several other low-cost clinics and health centers in that area that offered similar care. She could not provide immediate data on visits at those centers.
“We really are focusing on what is the everyday experience that our family planning patients are having, the folks who are getting sexual reproductive health care with us?” McNicholas said. “Are we meeting those needs?”
The organization in 2019 opened a large health center in the Metro East, just a few miles from the Missouri border. In Illinois, abortion remains legal. The facility has seen a huge swell of patients from states that have restricted or banned abortions since the Supreme Court’s ruling paved the way for states to ban abortion.
Planned Parenthood officials said the closure of the three clinics in Missouri was not related to high demand for its services in the Metro East, where the organization now serves patients from several states.
After the planned consolidation, the organization will operate five clinics throughout Missouri and the Illinois clinic in Fairview Heights. Another affiliate, Planned Parenthood Great Plains, operates clinics in Western Missouri and Kansas.
Although the legislature has outlawed abortion in Missouri, lawmakers have continued attempts to deny funding to Planned Parenthood clinics. A law that went into effect this summer bars the state’s Medicaid insurance for low-income people, MO HealthNet, from reimbursing care there. Nearly 20% of the organization’s Missouri patients are on Medicaid, according to Planned Parenthood.
Both of the state’s Planned Parenthood affiliates have issued complaints against the state with the Missouri Administrative Hearing Commission, a regulatory panel that hears disputes between state agencies and other parties.
The clinics have continued to provide care for Mo HealthNet patients despite the lack of reimbursement. McNicholas said that although it was not the main reason for shutting down the clinics, the legislative landscape has played a role.
“There are many things that went into this consideration. It certainly wasn't the primary thing, but this is the reality that we live in,” she said. “They continue to try and find ways to eliminate access for the state's most vulnerable, and despite the state's willingness to abdicate its responsibility to those constituents, we have not and we will not do that. But that does mean sometimes we will have to make some decisions like this that ensure long term sustainability.”
Planned Parenthood Great Rivers also announced clinics in St. Peters and west St. Louis County will soon provide care through the federal Title X program, which provides funding for breast and cervical cancer screenings, family planning, contraception and other services.
Most people who receive low-cost services through the federally funded program never know it's what is paying for their care, said Missouri Family Health Council’s Executive Director Michelle Trupiano. The organization coordinates and distributes the federal funding to Missouri providers.
Patients usually will receive services paid for by the program when they receive well-person exams and STI screenings, she said.
“We hope that nobody ever finds themselves without being able to access family planning and contraceptive services,” she said. “We never want cost to be a barrier while we’ve seen a shift in clinic sites across the state and some clinics closing.”
With the addition of the two clinics in St. Charles County and St. Louis County, every Planned Parenthood clinic in the region will receive Title X funding, Trupiano said.
Planned Parenthood officials said the organization will offer referrals, transportation and logistics support to patients at the clinics that will close to make sure they can continue their care.
This story has been updated with more details and comments from Planned Parenthood officials.
Correction: A previous version of this story mistated the locations of the Planned Parenthood clinics that receive Title X funding. Those clinics are in St. Charles and St. Louis counties.
