Facing both financial and political challenges, Planned Parenthood of Greater New York is closing its only Manhattan clinic and putting the NoHo building on the market for $39 million, the nonprofit health care provider announced this week.
Wendy Stark, president and CEO of the organization, which formed in 2020 after the merger of five statewide affiliates, said in a statement Wednesday that the organization hopes to use the windfall from the sale of 26 Bleecker St., known as the Manhattan Health Center, to better serve underserved communities.
“Our commitment to our patients is at the heart of our mission to provide equitable access to sexual and reproductive health care and education,” Stark said. “The gap between inflation and stagnant reimbursement rates has forced us to make difficult but necessary decisions.”
The nonprofit, which also offers gender-affirming care as well as HIV testing and primary care services, began leasing space in the 7-story building between Elizabeth and Mott Streets in 1989, city records show, and then purchased the entire roughly 43,000-square-foot property for about $5 million in 2003, according to a deed from that time.
In September Planned Parenthood of Greater New York stopped providing abortions at 20 or more weeks and no longer offered deep sedation for patients undergoing such surgical procedures as well as the implantation of intrauterine devices — changes the organization attributed at the time to fiscal constraints, specifically from what it called low Medicaid reimbursement rates. New York state allows abortions at up to 24 weeks with exceptions when the health of the pregnant person or fetus is at risk.
On the U.S. level, President Donald Trump has threatened to ban abortion nationwide and has limited federal funding for any groups that promote, provide or educate on the procedure. He has also widely criticized access to gender-affirming care. Some private hospitals in the city have already begun canceling gender-affirming surgeries for new pediatric patients in light of the Trump administration’s words, Crain’s reported last month. It’s not clear exactly how much money the New York affiliate of Planned Parenthood receives from the federal government, but an independent audit from the Government Accountability Office reported that the national organization received about $148 million in federal grants from 2019 through 2021.
Planned Parenthood of Greater New York continues to operate three other clinics in the city, in Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx. The latter two health centers underwent a combined $18.6 million overhaul in 2022, allowing them to see thousands more patients each year, Crain’s reported.
Originally called Margaret Sanger Center International, the Bleecker Street clinic was renamed the Manhattan Health Center in 2020 after the nonprofit distanced itself from its founder, Margaret Sanger, and removed her name from the building due to her involvement with the eugenics movement.
It’s unclear when exactly the Manhattan Health Center will stop seeing patients. Its closure hinges on its sale, which must be approved by the state because of the organization’s nonprofit status.
