Planned Parenthood of New York won't be offering abortions after 20 weeks any more, even though the state allows them to 24 weeks or longer. So did PP have a sudden change of heart about aborting babies close to viability? No, of course not. The problem is that PP is broke thanks in part to inflation. As the group's CEOs recently put it in an editorial, "New York’s abortion access ecosystem is being pushed to the limit." 

In a further sign of the group's economic troubles, PP is also closing four clinics in New York.

The move was the latest sign of financial struggles for Planned Parenthood’s New York chapter, which also plans to close four clinics around the state, including its sole clinic on Staten Island, Ms. Stark said. The chapter has already instituted executive pay cuts and consolidated job functions.

Ms. Stark confirmed that the Manhattan clinic plans to stop providing abortions past 20 weeks of pregnancy on Sept. 3, a change that was first reported by The City. Abortion is legal in New York State through the 24th week of pregnancy, and later in cases where a fetus is not viable or a woman’s life or health is at risk...

While other abortion providers in New York will still offer the procedure after 20 weeks, the decision by Planned Parenthood was worrisome news to those tracking abortion access across the country.

“Certainly, it’s a concern when any clinic or health care provider has to stop providing any type of abortion care,” said Rachel K. Jones, a researcher for the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive health research group that supports abortion rights. “It’s usually not a good sign, right?”

I don't know. It's a pretty good sign if you're a baby who would otherwise be dismembered. After all, babies born at 24 weeks have a good chance at surviving and that chance goes up to 90+% by 28 weeks. This isn't tissue (or whatever euphemism PP would prefer to use) these are fully formed babies. And by PP's own estimate, the number of abortions after 20 weeks is pretty small, around 2% of the 10,000 or so abortions performed every month in New York.

According to PP's president, the solution to this problem is, you guessed it, more public money:

We are fortunate to live in a state where abortion is covered by the state’s Medicaid program, which is not true across the country, but it’s not enough. Other abortion-access states like California, Illinois, and Oregon have taken steps to increase Medicaid reimbursement for medication abortion. New York providers also need equitable compensation by state and commercial payers for the cost of delivering essential, life-saving care to their local communities. The state’s failure to increase reimbursement rates for medication abortion was a missed opportunity to make a systematic, long-term investment in New York’s abortion access infrastructure. For New York to cement its position as a leader in the fight for reproductive rights it must increase Medicaid reimbursement rates and double down on its dedication to ensuring access to care at all gestations.

PP was getting by for a while on all of the outrage money that poured in after the Supreme Court put an end to Roe v. Wade two years ago, but that money is now said to be "leveling off."

In 2022, donors, outraged by the Supreme Court's wrongful decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, showed an outpouring of support for abortion patients, providers, and access funds. Two years later, the increase in giving motivated by the loss of Roe is leveling off while the demand for care and the cost of providing it continues to rise steeply.

That must be worrisome to Planned Parenthood. The outrage is dying down. People are getting used to the new normal, one in which abortion policy is dependent on the consent of the governed rather than being shoehorned into the US Constitution.

I'm not Catholic but I like the response of the director of New York's Catholic Conference who said, "To the extent that this economic decision by Planned Parenthood limits these incidents, we rejoice."