Planned Parenthood in St. George closing doors after freeze in federal funding

ST. GEORGE, Utah (KUTV) — Planned Parenthood’s St. George clinic will close its doors on May 2, leaving many college students, young residents, and low-income patients without a key source for low-cost reproductive care.

The St. George clinic does not provide abortion services. Instead, it offers cancer screenings, STI testing and treatment, birth control, limited fertility support and other basic reproductive care.

The clinic, located about a mile away from Utah Tech University, is one of two Planned Parenthood locations in Utah shutting down after the Trump administration froze $2.8 million in Title X funds. That federal grant program supports family planning services across the country.

“This is a family planning-only location,” said Shiren Ghorbani, interim president of Planned Parenthood Association of Utah. “We are talking about access to birth control. That’s what the St. George clinic did, and that’s about 98% of what Planned Parenthood provides in this state.”

Ghorbani said the Title X funding cut forced the organization to consolidate services and stretch funds. Along with the St. George clinic, the Logan location in northern Utah will also close.

The decision has left some Utah Tech students concerned.

“For college-aged students who don’t have a lot of money, having a place where you can get care for less money was so important,” said freshman Coco Mazet.

Gillian Morrison, a sophomore, echoed the same sentiment, saying “it was comforting to know that we could be safe and there was a Planned Parenthood in our community.”

Senior Nimea Adamson, who uses the pronoun they, said they worry that without accessible preventative care, students and other people in the community will have higher instances of STIs and unplanned pregnancies.

“If people have less access to the resources they need, like birth control and STI testing, other preventative measures, I fear it’s going to increase the rate of the things we are trying to prevent,” said Adamson.

For others, the closure poses logistical barriers.

“I don’t have a car on campus, so if I need any care, I have to find a way to Las Vegas,” said student Mackenzie Robb. “It’s two hours there and back. It makes everything more inconvenient and more expensive.”

Last year, Planned Parenthood Association of Utah provided care to 26,000 people through Title X-funded services. Ghorbani warned the consequences of the funding cuts could ripple across the state.

“We know that when people have either funding support withdrawn or they have to travel greater distances, they defer care,” said Ghorbani. “And we’re very concerned about that.”

She also emphasized the broader impact on health education in Utah.

“Title X funding also supports our education efforts,” Ghorbani said. “This is a state that already lacks in sex education and maturation education, so there are additional impacts we know are occurring because the administration’s decisions.”

Planned Parenthood said it will continue offering some services through telehealth, including prescribing birth control. But Ghorbani said the closures are part of a larger trend of declining public health support in the U.S.

“The administration is taking a wrecking ball to public health infrastructure,” she said. “The consequences are going to be devastating.”

The St. George clinic will close on May 2. The Logan location is scheduled to shut down on April 30.

The nearest Planned Parenthood location for southern Utah residents will be in Las Vegas, about 120 miles away.

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