(The Center Square) – A measure to allocate $90 million in grant funding to Planned Parenthood and other nonprofit reproductive health care providers in California passed the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee late Wednesday.
The bill is meant to help backfill the lack of federal funding for organizations like Planned Parenthood. The nonprofit is no longer able to receive federal funds after the passage of H.R. 1, otherwise known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. That federal budget, which passed Congress and was signed into law last summer, would keep federal money from going to nonprofit health providers that specialize in reproductive health, family planning or perform abortion services, according to the text of H.R. 1.
“It is very important to fill in behind the federal reductions on this,” Sen. John Laird, D-Santa Cruz and chair of the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee, said during the meeting late Wednesday afternoon. “What the federal government is doing is penalizing clinics that deliver certain services that weren’t funded by the federal government by cutting general medical care to thousands of people. That is what’s happening here.”
The $90 million allocated to grant programs would come from the state’s general fund, and would be a one-time allocation as part of this year’s state budget, according to the bill and legislators who spoke during the budget meeting on Wednesday.
State officials who testified during the meeting said the funding resolution is a result of talks with Planned Parenthood specifically, not other nonprofit clinics that specialize primarily in reproductive health care.
“We are aware of Planned Parenthood’ situation with respect to H.R. 1. And as you know, in the provisional language, it does outline a grant distribution process, so if there are other applicants that meet the requirements, they could, in theory, apply for and be eligible for grant funding,” Sonal Patel, assistant program budget manager at the California Department of Finance, testified during the meeting.
While there was generally supportive testimony from some lobbyists and members of the public, not all committee members agreed the allocation was the best use of general fund dollars.
“How come Californians get stuck with the bill for everybody else?” asked Sen. Kelly Seyarto, R-Murietta, during the meeting. “We’re inviting them here to take advantage of our free service that’s not free. We pay for it, and if that’s our policy, then I absolutely don’t agree with it.”
The Center Square previously reported that the budget bill was jointly announced late last week by Senate President Pro Tempore Monique Limón, D-Santa Barbara, and Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, D-Salinas. The proposed $90 million follows an announcement last fall from Gov. Gavin Newsom that the state would give Planned Parenthood $140 million, according to CalMatters.
Data from research group the Guttmacher Institute shows clinician-provided abortions in California declined 2% between 2024 and 2025, falling from 93,940 to 92,460. The number of patients who came to California from other states for abortion care also declined 30% during the same time frame, falling from 2,000 to 1,400.
“As we sit up here and we talk about us funding abortion clinics, that’s not actually accurate,” Sen. Akilah Weber Pierson, D-San Diego and a former obstetrician/gynecologist, said during the meeting. “This money, which they would have gotten from the federal government, was never going to go to pay for abortions.”
Instead, the money is being proposed because the “clinics serve an essential role in our communities,” she said.
