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The Post-Dobbs Landscape
Three years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, thirteen states enforce total bans on abortion. Five more restrict the procedure at six weeks of pregnancy, before most people know they are pregnant. Wyoming enacted its six-week ban in early 2026, the latest state to do so.
The result: roughly one in three women of reproductive age in the United States live in a state where abortion is banned or severely restricted. Emergency rooms in ban states report turning away patients with ectopic pregnancies and incomplete miscarriages while lawyers review whether treatment qualifies for narrow exceptions. Doctors in Texas, Idaho, and Tennessee have described delaying care until patients are sick enough to meet the legal threshold for intervention.
Planned Parenthood Lost Federal Medicaid Funding
The 2025 budget reconciliation law included Section 71113, which blocks federal Medicaid reimbursement to Planned Parenthood and two smaller clinic networks for one year, from July 2025 through July 2026. The ban covers all services, not just abortion. That includes contraception, cancer screenings, STI testing, and prenatal care.
The ban affects Planned Parenthood clinics in 39 states. In the first months, affiliates absorbed roughly $45 million in unreimbursed care. Some clinics reduced hours. Others stopped accepting new Medicaid patients. California allocated $90 million in emergency state funds to partially fill the gap. Most states have not.
Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia filed legal challenges. Those cases are still working through the courts.
Title X Family Planning in Limbo
President Trump’s FY2026 budget proposed eliminating the entire $286 million Title X program. Congress kept the funding in the final appropriation, but the administration created its own obstacle course. HHS froze 22 Title X grants through most of 2025, then gave grantees one week to respond to new continuation guidance in March 2026.
The new rules stripped two requirements: adherence to “Quality Family Planning” clinical standards and equity goals. Clinics that made public statements supporting diversity lost funding entirely. The Guttmacher Institute estimated that 30 percent of Title X patients could lose access to care.
Title X is the only federal program dedicated to family planning for low-income patients. It serves roughly 3.6 million people a year. The program does not fund abortions and never has.
2026 Ballot Measures
Voters in three states will decide reproductive rights ballot measures in November 2026:
Missouri — The state legislature referred an amendment that would repeal the reproductive rights protections voters approved in 2024. If passed, it would ban abortion from conception with narrow exceptions.
Nevada — Question 6, which enshrines abortion rights in the state constitution, passed with 64 percent of the vote in 2024. Nevada law requires ballot measures to pass twice. It returns to voters in November.
Virginia — The legislature referred a constitutional amendment establishing a right to reproductive freedom, including abortion care, contraception, miscarriage management, and fertility care.
Signature drives are underway in Idaho and Nebraska for additional measures.
What You Can Do
Call your members of Congress at (202) 224-3121 and tell them to oppose any extension of the Planned Parenthood Medicaid ban past July 2026. If you live in Missouri, Nevada, or Virginia, confirm your voter registration now — these ballot measures will shape reproductive rights for a generation.
Check your state legislature. Several states are considering copycat bans or new restrictions on medication abortion, which now accounts for the majority of procedures nationwide. Your state representative’s vote matters more than it did before Dobbs.
If you or someone you know needs abortion care, the National Abortion Federation Hotline at 1-800-772-9100 provides referrals and financial assistance.