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In Wisconsin, Planned Parenthood has stopped providing abortions at its clinics. That's because of a provision in the recently passed budget law under President Trump. As NPR's Katia Riddle reports, Wisconsin is not the only place where abortion access is quickly shifting.
KATIA RIDDLE, BYLINE: To be clear, it's already illegal to use federal funding to pay for abortions, but Planned Parenthood also offers other kinds of health care, like cancer screenings and birth control. The new law essentially penalizes organizations like Planned Parenthood that provide abortions by withholding Medicaid payments from them for any health care services.
TANYA ATKINSON: It was a terrible, terrible decision to be forced into because of politics.
RIDDLE: Tanya Atkinson is the CEO of Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin. Atkinson says they had to weigh their options - stop providing abortions or stop being paid through Medicaid for other kinds of care. She says in some parts of the state, they are the only health care option for low-income patients.
ATKINSON: Tens of thousands of Wisconsin women and people across the entire state who have Medicaid as their form of insurance wouldn't be able to access care at Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin.
RIDDLE: The law is being challenged in court. For now, the organization says it is referring people to other places for abortions, including in nearby Illinois. Danika Severino Wynn is with the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. She says other clinics across the country could stop providing abortions for the same reason.
DANIKA SEVERINO WYNN: That is possible, but we are committed to continuing to find a pathway forward to abortion care in every state where it's legal.
RIDDLE: Severino Wynn accuses the Trump administration of trying to cripple Planned Parenthood. Asked for a comment on this story, an official from the Department of Health and Human Services, Andrew Nixon, said, quote, "HHS is enforcing the law," end quote. Severino Wynn says the administration is having an impact.
SEVERINO WYNN: There have been more than 40 Planned Parenthood health centers that have closed since the start of 2025.
RIDDLE: Recent data from the Guttmacher Institute, which supports abortion rights, shows that fewer people are traveling out of state for abortions in 2025. In part, they say, that's because it's increasingly difficult to find a clinic, even in states where abortion is legal. However, they don't think this means people are having fewer of them. Isabel DoCampo is one of the researchers on this data.
ISABEL DOCAMPO: It may be that for many patients, getting care via telehealth in their state of residence is a better option than traveling out of state for abortion care.
RIDDLE: Telehealth abortion is when people get a prescription from a medical professional, either in their state or in another state, and then get abortion medication through the mail. DoCampo says patients are increasingly choosing this option instead of traveling to clinics for in-person appointments.
DOCAMPO: Travel out of state for health care has always - is always an extremely challenging endeavor. It's financially complex. It's emotionally taxing. It's logistically complex, as well.
RIDDLE: But advocates warn that even though telehealth is being used more than ever, it is a precarious system. Mary Ziegler is a law professor at University of California Davis who studies reproductive rights.
MARY ZIEGLER: So there is really no guarantee that telehealth is going to stick around.
RIDDLE: Ziegler points out that telehealth and the abortion medications that are mailed as a result are under attack from a number of different directions. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. just announced the government will be reviewing the, quote, "safety and efficacy" of the abortion medication mifepristone. Research shows the medication is safe and effective. Ziegler points out that telehealth channels to abortion are vulnerable to these kinds of legal challenges because of the way they've evolved.
ZIEGLER: There's been this entire model of care that's grown up in the shadow of this great legal and political uncertainty.
RIDDLE: The way people access abortion, she says, has changed dramatically in recent years. It could change dramatically again in the near future.
ZIEGLER: What happens if telehealth is no longer an option? Where do those patients go?
RIDDLE: Especially, she says, if clinics are no longer offering abortion, even in states where it's legal. Katia Riddle, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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