ST. GEORGE, Utah — The Planned Parenthood clinic in St. George is one of two scheduled to close after federal funds used to keep it up and running were frozen under a directive from the Trump administration.
The clinic is set to close for the final time after May 2.
"I, unfortunately, was the one breaking the news to my friends, and a lot of people are scared, quite frankly, because they rely on these services to keep themselves from needing an abortion," said CiCi Clawson.
The Logan clinic will be closing two days before the St. George location, with Planned Parenthood blaming about $2.8 million in Title X funds being frozen by the Trump administration.
"A lot of friends my age have had to rely on them for things like birth control, other contraceptives," Clawson added.
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Title X was established in 1970 to provide family planning and reproductive services to low-income individuals.
Mary Taylor, the president of Pro-Life Utah, claimed Planned Parenthood was using Title X money as a means to ultimately provide abortions.
"Today's closure of these clinics clearly illustrates that while Title X may not pay directly for an abortion, it is necessary to keep the abortion clinic doors open," she claimed.
Shireen Ghorbani, the interim president of Planned Parenthood of Utah, disagrees.
"In St. George, that clinic in particular was deeply impacted because all we do there are birth control, STI testing, cancer screening, we can do some basic fertility testing," Ghorbani said.
Back in St. George, Clawson says she says there are nuances where she doesn’t think it’s impossible to find some common ground.
"I did study political science in college at Brigham Young University," she shared. "I can completely sympathize with not wanting dead babies. I come from a pro-life upbringing myself and consider myself somewhere in the middle, if there is some middle ground to pro-choice and pro-life, but you can't regulate something that's not available."
Ghorbani, Taylor and Clawson all agreed that other organizations are going to have to take up the slack in southern Utah for low-income women.
"I believe our community can find a silver lining. And I know that there are many nonpartisan groups that are working on providing mutual aid," Clawson said. "I believe that through those organizations, we will still be able to support each other. and maybe that'll be the healthy compromise that people want is just community organizations filling this need."
