Independent abortion clinic closures double in 2025: report

Every year, the majority of abortions are performed by independent abortion clinics. Now, these bedrock providers are struggling to stay open, according to a new report.

About 23 independent clinics have closed in 2025 as of October, nearly double the total 12 clinic closures in 2024 and on par with the 23 closures in 2023, according to the Dec. 9 Communities Need Clinics report from the Abortion Care Network (ACN), a national membership and advocacy organization for independent clinics not affiliated with a larger organization like Planned Parenthood.

The current 396 brick-and-mortar and 244 online-only independent clinics provide 58% of abortions nationwide, not including abortions performed under shield laws in states where abortion care is illegal, the report says. (The list of independent clinics grew YoY, but that reflects more clinics self-reporting, not necessarily a net growth in clinic openings, ACN spokesperson Jay Thibodeau told us.)

“Even with a high level of stress, we are still here. We’re constantly showing up,” Dabbie Phonekeo, clinic director of Affiliated Medical Services in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, said during a Dec. 3 ACN forum.

Since the US Supreme Court overturned constitutional abortion protections in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in 2022, 100 independent clinics have closed, per the report. At least 60 independent brick-and-mortar clinics have opened.

Funding shrinks. The biggest threat to clinics this year wasn’t state bans or limits. It was funding, Phonekeo said.

The number of states that ban the procedure or restrict it to 18 weeks gestation or earlier has stayed constant from 2024 to 2025, according to the New York Times abortion ban tracker.

But funding has fallen.

Though private insurance sometimes covers abortions, there isn’t typically federal assistance available as a result of the 1977 Hyde Amendment, which bars federal funds from being used for abortions except in cases of rape, incest, or if the mother’s life is in danger.

Nonprofit abortion funds compensate for this by collecting donations through grants and crowdsourcing for patients who can’t afford an abortion or associated expenses like plane tickets to travel to a state where abortion care is legal, per ACN.

But funds nationwide—from Maryland to Nevada to Texas—say those donations have decreased after the initial Dobbs decision fervor faded. One of the largest patient assistance organizations, the National Abortion Federation hotline, cut its monthly budget for assistance in half in July 2024 from $6 million to $3 million.

This cut in funding comes amid a surge of patients, according to #WeCount, the Society of Family Planning’s national abortion data-tracking effort. The healthcare system provided more abortions in the first half of this year (an average of 98,630 per month) than any year since per #WeCount began in April 2022, per a Dec. 9 analysis.

“We’ve never had to turn anybody away due to funding but…the funding landscape is changing. Fewer funds are made available to abortion seekers, and by the time people come to us, they’ve been trying to access care for months,” Karishma Oza, chief of staff for Washington, DC-based abortion clinic the DuPont Clinic, said during the forum.

The big picture. Independent clinics lack the resources of major chains, but even that structure doesn’t guarantee security. This year, Planned Parenthood has shuttered clinics in Illinois, Michigan, and other states, NPR reported in May, citing financial challenges.

Then, July’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act banned many abortion providers from receiving any federal funding at all, including from Medicaid.

Previously, these providers received reimbursement for providing basic non-abortion services like cancer screenings and sexually transmitted infection testing. In September, the first month this law became enforceable, Planned Parenthood estimates it provided $45 million worth of care to Medicaid patients without reimbursement.

The provision is temporarily blocked as of Dec. 2.