Just days after Midtown Cleveland Planned Parenthood announced the clinic's closure, it was as though the reproductive health provider's location never existed.
On Tuesday, the windows were shuttered and all signage had been removed from the building's facade, sandwiched between a U.S. Bank branch and a vape shop.
A sign taped to the boarded-up front door read, "Now Closed" in bold letters, citing "ongoing attacks from the Trump administration" for disrupting "essential services" provided by Planned Parenthood, including birth control access, cancer screenings and testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections.
The sign referred patients to other Northeast Ohio locations in Old Brooklyn, Bedford Heights and Rocky River.
"Why'd they close this one?" wondered Desire Sue, a 54-year-old Cleveland resident standing outside the clinic after visiting the bank next door. "Because we're Black, right?"
Sue, a resident of the majority-Black Kinsman neighborhood on the city's East Side, has never visited the Planned Parenthood, but she said it was "sad" that people who needed the care could show up to an empty building.
"They should have closed ones further out," she said. "I mean there's more people here in Cleveland having more issues than the ones out that way anyway, or can afford to [seek care.]"
The closure was announced Sunday by Erica Wilson-Domer, the CEO of Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio. In a written statement, she wrote that the Trump administration's freezing of Title X funds was a "driving factor" in closing the clinic.
Though federal law gives Medicaid patients the right to choose their own qualified provider, President Donald Trump and other Republicans have attempted to block those recipients of the government health insurance program from using those dollars at Planned Parenthoods.
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that two South Carolina Planned Parenthood clinics could not sue the state for withholding Medicaid dollars needed to provide abortion access. Since that ruling, multiple clinics across the country have closed their doors.
Cleveland Right to Life applauded the closure in a Tuesday statement, thanking "God for the legislators who stood up to the most-evil organization of our time, Planned Parenthood."
Sue said the reproductive health clinic's closure, and other threats to benefits like Medicaid, would disproportionately affect minorities and the Cleveland's poorest residents, particularly children.
"You don't know when food stamps and money gonna get cut off too. ... This ain't gonna be a joke when you have all these babies you can't take care of," she said. "And Trump don't care."
Sue is a recipient of Medicaid, without which she said she could not afford healthcare for her medical issues. The Senate narrowly approved its version of Trump's spending bill Tuesday, which the Congressional Budget Office estimates will result in nearly 12 million Americans losing care.
Cleveland's Department of Public Health said in a Tuesday statement it was prepared to "step up" to ensure those affected by the Planned Parenthood closure would still receive reproductive care.
“No one should have to go without essential reproductive and preventive health services,” the city's Director of Public Health David Margolius said in a written statement. “Our team is committed to making sure that everyone—regardless of income, zip code, or insurance status—has access to the health care they need.”
The following services at available at the city's main public health centers and at mobile health units in neighborhoods across the city:
- Birth control and family planning
- STD testing and treatment
- Pregnancy testing and counseling
- Wellness exams
- TB Testing
- Immunizations
- HPV and Gardasil vaccinations
