Planned Parenthood announced the closure of several of its clinics in Minnesota and Iowa

Planned Parenthood's regional affiliate in Iowa announced Friday that four of its six clinics in Iowa and four others in the state of Minnesota will officially closewithin a year, attributing the decision to a federal funding freeze, state restrictions on abortion and budget cuts. The four clinics the organization will close in Iowa include its only facility that performed abortion procedures in the state, located specifically at Iowa State University's Ames location. The others that will close are located in Des Moines, Sioux City and Cedar Rapids. The Planned Parenthood clinics that will close in Minnesota are in Richfield, Apple Valley, Minneapolis, Bemidji and Alexandria, where the only one offering abortion services is located.

In the statement, the subsidiary's president and CEO, Ruth Richardson, explained that 66 employees will be laid off and another 37 will be transferred to other clinics, adding that the subsidiary will continue to invest in telemedicine services, through which almost 20,000 patients a year are served virtually. "We have been fighting to hold together an unsustainable infrastructure as the landscape shifts around us and an onslaught of attacks continues," Richardson said.

Tough blow for Planned Parenthood

In April, the organization announced that the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump had frozen $2.8 million in federal funds that were intended for Minnesota to provide services such as sexually transmitted disease testing, cervical cancer screenings and contraception. While federal funds cannot be used for most abortions, numerous medical specialists and health experts have argued over the past several years that Planned Parenthood affiliates across the country should not receive taxpayer money, as they are funds that indirectly subsidize abortion services.

The closure of these clinics comes a year after the Republican-governed state of Iowa banned a good portion of abortionsafter approximately six weeks of pregnancy, causing a 60% reduction in abortions performed in that state during the first six months the law was in effect.