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A network of medical clinics serving low-income residents in Maine said it would close its primary care operations on Friday because trump The administration cut back on abortion providers.
Maine Family Planning operates 18 clinics in the state and says abortions are a relatively small percentage of its total services, which also include cancer screenings, sexually transmitted disease testing and contraception. The network said it had to cut primary care due to the administration’s blocking move Medicaid Money from abortion providers, including very large Planned Parenthood,
George Hill, president of Maine Family Planning, said the move to defund abortion providers is driving patients in Maine away from their doctors. The network saw more than 600 patients in its primary care practices last year, Hill said.
“Telling those patients that we can no longer see them is devastating, especially knowing that some of them will find it very difficult to get a new provider and may drop out of care,” Hill said.
Maine Family Planning serves many poor and rural areas of the state and typically receives about $1.9 million in Medicaid reimbursements per year, the network said in a statement. The network said it informed its patients about the primary care closure about a month ago. The network has a total of about 8,000 patients.
Maine Family Planning fought in federal court to block the Medicaid dollars, but 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 the High Court, and that legal battle is still ongoing.
Reproductive Rights Center The case was filed in federal court on behalf of the network and said Friday it would continue to fight to have funding restored. Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, called the loss of funding for Maine family planning “part of a larger strategy to close clinics even in states like Maine that protect abortion rights.”