Planned Parenthood's new strategy

Planned Parenthood abortion clinics have faced a reckoning since they were blocked last year from receiving Medicaid reimbursements by way of a provision in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. But the nation’s largest Planned Parenthood affiliate, Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, is rolling out a novel strategy to keep the cash flowing so that it can subsidize its mission of aborting children.

Some of its clinics are now providing BOTOX®, a neurotoxin that minimizes the appearance of wrinkles. The affiliate is also planning to add additional cosmetic procedures. These include dermal fillers – which are injected into lips, cheeks, or jawlines – and laser hair removal. Planned Parenthood Mar Monte clinics are becoming, in effect, medspas to prop up child killing.

Stacy Cross, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, told The Wall Street Journal [in March], “We know we have to face reality to keep our doors open. … That’s where these new services come in.”

The Wall Street Journal chronicled the visit of Sacramento resident Nasim Adeli to one of Planned Parenthood’s abortion clinics to get BOTOX® injections. Adeli had previously visited medspas for BOTOX® but found that the cost at Planned Parenthood is about 25% less than nearby aesthetic clinics.

The Planned Parenthood affiliate’s chief medical operating officer explained that the lower cost is due to the fact that “we don’t have the same profit-margin expectations as a medspa.” Rather, Planned Parenthood has a mission of aborting children, and any money that helps it achieve that mission is welcome.

Chillingly, The Wall Street Journal documented how medical tools and spaces typically used for killing unborn children have been repurposed to cater to women’s cosmetic desires. Chairs women sit in to recover after their babies have been killed are instead used for women to receive IV hydration, a trending medical service that supporters believe boosts wellness and enhances immunity. And medical supplies kept in rooms often used for abortions are hidden away to contribute to the “spa vibe.”

Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, which operates 30 abortion clinics in central California and Nevada, even has a new director solely for its aesthetics program, Samantha Pohlman.

Abortion clinics have proven surprisingly immune to Medicaid funding losses. The Guttmacher Institute, a pro-abortion research organization, said [in February] that the number of brick-and-mortar abortion clinics in the U.S. had declined by only 2% by the end of 2025 compared to March 2024. Seventy-three percent of abortions in the U.S. were provided in-person during the first half of 2025, according to the Society of Family Planning, though this number has continued to fall as telehealth abortions increase in popularity.

Planned Parenthood has struggled more than other abortion businesses. The organization said in January that it closed 51 clinics in 2025, 20 of which were closed directly as a result of the loss of Medicaid reimbursements. Planned Parenthood President Alexis McGill Johnson has claimed that the loss of Medicaid funding is “unsustainable,” and a report from the organization said its clinics are “being pushed to the brink.”

Planned Parenthood clinics have largely been able to cover their funding gaps through an increase in private donations and state funding. California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) announced last month, for instance, that the state would provide $90 million in additional funding to Planned Parenthood and other abortion clinics.

One thing that may help abortion businesses survive is the fact that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s pause on Medicaid reimbursements is only for one year. If Congress does not renew the prohibition on funding for abortion centers, many of these Planned Parenthood locations will go on to continue their mission of aborting children.

In addition to providing BOTOX® and abortions up to 23 weeks gestation, Planned Parenthood Mar Monte offers birth control to girls 12 and older without their parents’ knowledge as well as “gender affirming hormone therapy.”

Editor’s Note: Ellie Gardey Holmes is a reporter at The American Spectator and author of Newsom Unleashed: The Progressive Lust for Unbridled Power. This commentary, originally posted by The Washington Stand on March 3, 2026, at washingtonstand.com/article/planned-parenthoods-new-strategy-subsidizing-abortion-with-BOTOX, was reprinted with permission from Family Research Council.