Planned Parenthood announced Wednesday its Gainesville clinic will be closing its doors June 26.
In-person medical services like vaccinations will end, though some care will be available through telehealth services, like mental health appointments.
The closest Planned Parenthood locations are in Jacksonville and Tallahassee, a roughly 90- and 150-minute drive from the Gainesville location respectively.
The Gainesville location doesn’t offer abortion services but has provided gender-affirming care, screenings for sexually transmitted infections and other reproductive health services to North Central Florida.
Michelle Quesada, the vice president of communications for Planned Parenthood of Florida, said the closure is due to the Gainesville clinic’s declining patient volume.
Though the decision was made recently, she said the Gainesville location had been monitored for several years, and efforts were made to increase the number of patients.
“We just haven’t been able to succeed at that location,” Quesada said.
She attributed the lack of patients to the abundance of other reproduction healthcare resources in Gainesville, such as GatorWell Health Promotion Services at UF and Bread and Roses Women’s Health Center in northwest Gainesville.
Quesada said the decision doesn’t reflect a broader withdrawal from the region but rather an effort to adjust services to meet changing needs.
Planned Parenthood is committed to connecting patients with local resources and referrals during the transition period before the location’s closure, Quesada said.
Gender-affirming care is one area that will be heavily impacted by the closure, she added, given the region’s already limited access.
“I don't think that there's any other provider in the region,” she said.
Earlier this month, UF’s student health care center discontinued gender-affirming care services.
Planned Parenthood is exploring partnerships with local community providers to create a shared facility arrangement that would allow gender-affirming care to continue for patients in the area, Quesada said.
Meg Carso, a 20-year-old UF marine biology senior, is a co-director of the Brown Paper Bag Project, a UF student club dedicated to providing free sexual and reproductive health supplies to students through an anonymous, student-run delivery service.
The club is affiliated with UF’s Planned Parenthood Generation Action chapter, which works closely with the Gainesville clinic.
Carso said the project receives emergency contraception like Plan B from the Gainesville Planned Parenthood.
The club has already had to apply for stipends and other outside resources due to funding challenges unrelated to the clinic’s closure, Carso said. The club will continue to rely on the outside resources after the clinic closes, she added.
Still, Carso said the clinic’s closure is saddening.
“Already so many same Planned Parenthoods have been shut down and closed, so I had been worried about it happening in Gainesville," she said. “It's also just worrisome that's happening near college campuses … That’s where we really need them.”
Contact Julianna Bendeck at jbendeck@alligator.org
Julianna Bendeck is a first-year journalism student and the Summer 2026 criminal justice reporter. She previously worked as a contributing writer and race and equity reporter at The Alligator. Outside the newsroom, she enjoys reading, surfing the web and playing video games.
