When Wisconsin Planned Parenthood clinics temporarily suspended abortion services in October 2025 due to a new law ending federal Medicaid reimbursements, patients turned to the state’s two independent clinics for care.
Demand at affiliated medical services in Milwaukee has quadrupled, according to clinic director Dabbie Phonekeo.
“It happened suddenly. We were all thinking about what to do and how to accept all the patients,” Phonekeo said.
Staff secured additional funding to meet the needs of Planned Parenthood clinics in Wisconsin resumed abortionsadjustment under a law which prohibits certain reproductive health care providers from receiving federal funding until July 2026.
“This reminded us why it is so important to have independent clinics and access to abortion in general,” Phonekeo said.
At least 23 independent clinics have closed this year, according to a report released Tuesday Abortion Care Networkcompared to 12 last year.
Most were in states with abortion rights protections, the report found.
Independent providers face less recognition than Planned Parenthood and persistent barriers to funding. Donations to abortion clinics and funds have declined, leading to increased out-of-pocket costs for patients. States Newsroom reported last year.
Independent clinics provide 58 percent of all abortions nationwide, while Planned Parenthood provides 38 percent, hospitals provide 3 percent and 1 percent occurs at doctors’ offices, according to the latest findings from the Abortion Care Network.
Medication abortion regimens containing mifepristone, currently approved by the FDA for the first ten weeks of pregnancy, have been a focus of abortion rights advocates and opponents this year. But independent clinics are more likely to offer legal procedural abortions afterward.
More than 60 percent of all U.S. clinics that offer abortion care after the first trimester are independent, 85 percent that offer abortions after 22 weeks or later are independent, and all clinics that perform the procedure after 26 weeks are independent, the report said.
“Although both medication and in-clinic abortion are safe and effective, people may need or prefer one method over the other,” the report said. “This is especially true for patients for whom it is not safe or feasible to stop outside the clinic – including those experiencing intimate partner violence, minors without support at home, people experiencing homelessness and patients who cannot take time off from work or care.”
The latest clinic closures come more than three years after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization The decision forced many to cease operations: 100 independent clinics were closed between 2022 and 2025.
Affiliated Medical Services in Wisconsin is one of the few independent abortion providers that was able to reopen after closing on the day the nation’s highest court struck down federal abortion rights on June 24, 2022.
The clinic reopened in March 2024, a few months after a Wisconsin judge ruled that a 19th century abortion ban was invalid. Wisconsin Examiner reported.
Phonekeo said people were initially hesitant to make appointments at the clinic.
“Most of our patients we saw were asking, ‘Is this legal? Am I going to jail if I get an abortion today? Can we do this in Wisconsin?’ So I think a lot of patients were still afraid to be seen,” she said.
Independent clinics could become even more important for access to reproductive health care if lawmakers permanently ban Planned Parenthood from receiving federal funds.
Some anti-abortion groups have urged the Trump administration to disqualify Planned Parenthood as a federal supplier. States Newsroom reported in November.
Nearly 50 Planned Parenthood clinics have closed this year due to health care cuts Title and Medicaid. At least 20 have closed since a federal “defunding” provision that cut off Medicaid funds for reproductive health care providers who provide abortions and received more than $800,000 in fiscal year 2023 took effect, according to a count released on November 12th by the national organization.
Some clinics that closed did not offer abortion. And by law, federal funding only covers abortions in extreme circumstances, so the Medicaid reimbursement ban mainly affects patients who go to Planned Parenthood for other services, such as contraception, cervical cancer screening and treatment for sexually transmitted infections.
Some independent clinics also offer non-abortion care, but many do not accept Medicaid, clinic directors said at a Wednesday news briefing.
Amber Gavin is vice president of operations advocacy at A Woman’s Choice, an organization with three clinics in North Carolina and one each in Florida and Virginia. She said employees at the Charlotte location have seen an increase in patients seeking STD testing and related services.
Karishma Oza, chief of staff at the DuPont Clinic in Washington, D.C., also said health care providers there have seen an increase in the number of uninsured or underinsured patients since the Medicaid ban, which mainly affects Planned Parenthood, went into effect.
Phonekeo said the Wisconsin clinic has not been able to handle more demand for reproductive health care than abortion. Yet Affiliated Medical Services offers birth control pills, IUDs, STD testing and treatment, miscarriage care, and even follow-up care for abortion medications, offered through online-only clinics like Hey Jane.
Although all three clinic leaders said they do not accept Medicaid, they offer sliding scale payments for people who cannot afford the full cost of care.
“We are more than just abortion providers,” says Phonekeo.
This story was originally reported by Elisa Brown from States Newsroom and published on December 9, 2025. RNG edited one sentence in the story to clarify which types of abortion drugs are FDA-approved and targeted by anti-abortion groups. Staten Newsroom is a non-profit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
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