In a tight budget year, with legislative budget writers forced to cut spending, the Legislature is on track to pass a multi-million dollar bill to ensure tens of thousands of low-income Oregonians can rely on Planned Parenthood’s reproductive health care services.

On Wednesday, the state House approved House Bill 4127, which would dedicate nearly $9 million more in state funds for Planned Parenthood, ensuring that the organization’s clinics in Oregon continue seeing patients on the Oregon Health Plan, the state’s version of Medicaid for low-income people.

The bill is divisive, with minority Republicans voting against it at every stop.

House Minority Leader Lucetta Elmer of McMinnville spoke against it on Wednesday, saying that while she approves of women having health care choices, she is voting against the bill. She said the money should be spent shoring up other health care entities, like the struggling Bay Area Hospital in Coos Bay.

“This bill is about funding,” she said. “We are making a choice here today to take funding dollars and put it toward an entity that does many good things but there are many other entities across the state that do many of those exact same things.”

But Democrats, who control both houses, moved the bill forward. It passed the House on a 34-20 party-line vote and now goes to the Senate for consideration.

The bill is championed by House Majority Leader Ben Bowman of Tigard.

“This bill ensures that Oregonians can continue to access affordable health care from Planned Parenthood,” Bowman told fellow lawmakers on Wednesday. 

The bill stems from a move by Congress to eliminate all Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood clinics nationwide for a year starting last July. Republicans have long campaigned to cut funding for the organization over its abortion care though it's not received any federal dollars for abortions for nearly 50 years, following congressional passage of the Hyde Amendment. 

In Oregon, Planned Parenthood is the state’s largest abortion provider, performing about 10,000 procedures or medication abortions a year, but that only represents about 10% of its services. Its clinics have depended on Medicaid, which is funded by federal and state dollars, to pay for its other reproductive health care services, which include everything from cancer screenings and testing for sexually transmitted diseases to contraception.

Planned Parenthood has clinics in 46 states serving more than 2 million patients a year. It has two affiliates in Oregon — Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette and Planned Parenthood Southwestern Oregon — that operate 11 clinics from Portland to Ontario in eastern Oregon and Eugene and Medford in the south. Together, they serve more than 75,000 patients on the Oregon Health Plan.

The loss of all Medicaid income since July has forced the organization to dip into its reserves and temporarily close the Grants Pass clinic due to staffing. 

Across the country, dozens of Planned Parenthood clinics have closed since its Medicaid funds were cut. This bill aims to prevent that from happening in Oregon, lawmakers said. 

“When Washington, D.C. politicians try to take away essential health care from Oregonians, and close clinics as part of a back-door abortion ban, we have to stand up for the people of this state and say ‘no,’” said Rep. April Dobson of Happy Valley.

Long history of support

The congressional cut stripped $16.4 million in federal funds from Planned Parenthood’s clinics in Oregon, according to legislative fiscal analysts. In November, the legislative Emergency Board filled part of that gap with an allotment of $7.5 million. If the bill passes, it would fill the remaining $8.9 million hole caused by lost federal funding.

A total of $8 million would go to the Oregon Health Plan to fill in for lost federal funds, while $890,000 would go to Oregon ContraceptiveCare, a state program that provides free or low-cost services.

Besides Oregon, 10 other states run by Democrats have approved additional funding for Planned Parenthood clinics, with California approving $90 million in February. Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New Mexico have approved millions of dollars in state funds for the organization, and Colorado, New York and Washington state have agreed to fill the federal funding gap.

It’s unclear what will happen after July, when the congressional ban is scheduled to end.