Aneri Pillai was at home scrolling on her phone when she stumbled upon an Instagram post that left her devastated: The Santa Cruz Planned Parenthood Health Center had permanently closed.

As both a student at UC Santa Cruz and the president of the university’s Planned Parenthood Generation Action (PPGA), Pillai was one of many students shocked to hear about the center’s closure last month.

“It goes to show how red states are not [the only states] being affected by policies geared towards conservatism,” Pillai said. “Santa Cruz, a town which is known [as] a liberal stronghold, isn’t exempt from the negative consequences of those policies either.”

For over 50 years, Santa Cruz Planned Parenthood provided quality, affordable sexual and reproductive health care services to community members and beyond. Pap smears,birth control consultations, breast cancer screenings and family planning services were offered regardless of health insurance. Those who relied on the center are now forced to look elsewhere for alternative sexual and reproductive health care providers — and their options are markedly limited.

The Santa Cruz Planned Parenthood clinic sign visible from Cedar St. as workers operate construction vehicles in the mall’s parking lot. Despite the clinic’s closure on July 24, 2025, it still remained a month later. Photo by Reggie Sasaki.

The “Defund Provision” Shutters Clinic

Expansive federal funding cuts in President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill

Act (OBBBA) passed on July 4. As a direct result, the Santa Cruz clinic closed 20 days later. The bill’s “Defund Provision” blocked Medicaid reimbursements for services offered at Planned Parenthood, reducing access for low-income and disabled Medicaid recipients and cutting off the clinic’s main funding supply.

Planned Parenthood affiliates in California could lose nearly $300 million in federal funding because of these cuts to reimbursements. To keep the majority of their health centers running, Planned Parenthood Mar Monte (PPMM), the affiliate that oversaw Santa Cruz Planned Parenthood, chose to close five centers including the Pacific Street location.

“This administration has been threatening this since [Trump’s] first term,” said Katherine Havens, a senior at UCSC.

Havens never sought out care at Santa Cruz Planned Parenthood. But as a woman with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), a chronic disorder commonly managed with birth control, Santa Cruz Planned Parenthood served as a reliable safety net if she required emergency care.

“It brought me back to when Roe v. Wade was overturned, which was a really devastating time. It really feels like we’re going backwards,” Havens said.

The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, published Project 2025 a year before the 2024 election. Serving as a blueprint for a number of policies passed since Trump took office in Jan., the 920-page document outlines plans for policies similar to the “Defund Provision.”

In an interview with City on a Hill Press, Andrew Adams, the chief of staff and strategies of PPMM, stated that the organization began strategic planning last year to prepare for further attacks on public health funding.

“One of the attacks that we are anticipating is what’s called the Comstock Act,” Adams said.

The Comstock Act is a federal law originally created in 1873 to allow post office personnel to check mail for any obscene or lascivious content, including any materials with information relating to sexual and reproductive health, sexuality, abortion or birth control. The Trump administration has foreshadowed using the Comstock Act to halt the interstate transfer of mifepristone and misoprostol, two drugs used for medical abortions, as well as any medical equipment used in procedural abortion.

“This will not just impact Planned Parenthood. This will impact hospitals and other medical providers who are treating women — and others who are pregnant — who have potentially wanted pregnancy, but have a complication,” Adams said. “If and when [the administration] implements the Comstock Act in this manner, people will die, and it’s a horrific consequence of their callousness towards bodily autonomy.”

Limited Access with the Student Health Center

In the wake of the Santa Cruz Planned Parenthood shutdown, the UCSC Student Health Center is now the primary resource available to UCSC students seeking sexual and reproductive health care.

“UCSC Student Health Services is actively exploring how to expand services to meet this unexpected need in light of the Santa Cruz Planned Parenthood closure,” wrote Erin Elliott, the communications director for student success and campus climate, in an email to City on a Hill Press. “Planned Parenthood in Watsonville remains open and is accepting new patients, and we will refer students to that location.”

Elliott also stated that the Student Health Center plans to continue offering the same resources as in this past academic year of 2024-25. This includes medical abortions, STI testing, gender-affirming care and other services delineated on their website.

The UC Student Health Insurance Plan (UC SHIP) serves as the most common form of insurance for UCSC students without other means of health insurance. Students without UC SHIP have the option to purchase CruzCare which, while less expensive, doesn’t offer STI testing, physicals, prescriptions or over-the- counter medications.

Although many services at the UCSC Health Center are intended to be affordable and easily accessible, some students who do not have UC SHIP face difficulties in qualifying for care.

It is those same students, many of whom are unable to afford the UC SHIP plan, that used to seek care at the Santa Cruz Planned Parenthood health center. Gwenyth Rodriguez-Holguin, a

UCSC and City on a Hill Press alum, was one such student.

“I was not on UC SHIP. My dad is a teacher, so I got his health insurance and I couldn’t afford paying another however much for UC SHIP,” Rodriguez-Holguin said. Having grown up in a family where sexual and reproductive health care was not discussed, Rodriguez-Holguin had nowhere to turn to when seeking advice.

Despite their ultimate success in settling on an effective method of birth control with Santa Cruz Planned Parenthood, Rodriguez-Holguin struggled immensely with finding nearby health centers.

“When I was first trying to figure out how I could get on birth control, I was just trying to see what I could do with my insurance,” they said. “Everything that I could do [with it] was in San  Jose or in areas that I could not get to because I didn’t have a car,” Rodriguez-Holguin continued. “I ended up making an appointment to go to Planned Parenthood and get an IUD, and that has been one of the most life-changing decisions I’ve had the privilege to make.”

Incoming and continuing students like Rodriguez-Holguin will now be forced to take a similar path. Without the Santa Cruz Planned Parenthood health center, they will likely be forced to travel to the Watsonville or Silicon Valley Planned Parenthood health centers for affordable care.

“I really hope that there can be a solution for this soon because there are going to be hundreds, if not thousands of people who will be affected by this,” Rodriguez-Holguin said. “I believe in the resilience of the Santa Cruz community and I hope that people can work together to fight for reproductive rights.”

Places Offering Sexual Health and Reproductive Care