Planned Parenthood of Utah announced Tuesday that thanks to “ongoing attacks from the Trump administration,” it’s been forced to restructure its operations, which includes closing two clinics — one in northern and one in southern Utah.

May 2, Planned Parenthood said it would be closing its Logan and St. George centers, which served about 4,500 patients last year. Plus, it said it would be cutting staff and increasing prices.

“The painful decisions to close Logan and St. George health centers, reduce PPAU’s staff, and increase service fees are forced on us by the Trump administration,” said Sarah Stoesz, interim CEO of Planned Parenthood Association of Utah.

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The nonprofit — which offers affordable sexual and reproductive health care, especially for low-income Utahns — said in a news release Tuesday that it had to make “several difficult operational decisions,” including the clinic closures, “to preserve the organization’s long-term sustainability and access to care for as many patients as possible.”

Planned Parenthood of Utah officials said President Donald Trump’s administration’s withholding of $2.8 million in Title X funds forced them to take action. In addition to the closures, they said they also had to reduce “clinical and education staff” and up their prices.

“Unfortunately, without Title X funding, PPAU must also increase the sliding-fee scale for self-pay patients,” the news release said. “Simultaneously, PPAU will expand telehealth services to help connect patients in remote or rural areas to timely care.”

Since 1985, Planned Parenthood of Utah has been the only recipient of Title X funding in the state. More than 26,000 low-income Utahns received low or no-cost services from Planned Parenthood thanks to that grant, according to the nonprofit.

Last month, on March 31, the federal Health and Human Services’ Office of Population Affairs notified almost one in five Title X grantees across the country that their fourth year of funding (for a five-year period) would be “temporarily withheld,” according to KFF, a health policy research outlet. That freeze impacted all nine of Planned Parenthood’s grantees, plus seven other nonprofits. It’s not clear when or if that funding will be unfrozen.

As part of that decision, all of Utah’s Title X funding was frozen. Planned Parenthood of Utah has eight clinics throughout the state.

The Trump administration said the funding freeze was aimed at enforcing executive orders on diversity and immigration. Federal officials gave Utah and the other impacted affiliates “10 days to submit detailed reports showing they don’t discriminate in hiring or patient care, but those who did so by the deadline said they have not received a response,” Politico reported Tuesday. The outlet also said the Trump administration did not respond to questions about the status of the funds.

“It’s been radio silence,” Stoesz told Politico. “For some inexplicable reason, they are taking a meat axe to the healthcare system in America.”

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Since Title X, the nation’s only federally-funded family planning program, was enacted in 1970 with bipartisan support, it has helped millions across the country access preventative health care, including birth control, sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment, and cancer screenings. The program’s money cannot be used to fund abortions, according to Congress.

“By withholding Title X funding from PPAU, the Trump administration is taking away essential health care from Utahns,” Stoesz said.

Still, Stoesz said in a prepared statement Tuesday that the nonprofit is “committed to making sure that everyone gets the health care they need when they need it, despite efforts by politicians to take it away.”

“We know that we cannot show up for the communities who rely on us without making some challenging decisions now,” she said.

By “consolidating our health care delivery and expanding telehealth, we will be in a better position to continue serving those who rely on us for health care,” Stoesz added. “While politicians in Washington are taking away people’s health care, Planned Parenthood is working tirelessly to keep our patients, families, and communities healthy.”

Shireen Ghorbani, interim president of Planned Parenthood Association of Utah, said the organization has spent decades — 55 years — supporting Utahns and “future generations.”

“This decision is heartbreaking and extremely difficult but necessary right now, so we can operate a sustainable organization that can continue to provide our community with essential health care and education,” said Ghorbani, who ran an unsuccessful Democratic bid to represent Utah in Congress in 2018.

Despite the funding freeze, Ghorbani said Planned Parenthood of Utah will continue to provide services.

“Our mission, coupled with the challenges of this moment — federal dismantling of health care, inflation, stagnant reimbursement rates — requires us to take serious and immediate cost-saving measures to protect the people we serve,” she said. “During this transition, our clinical staff will ensure our patients continue to get the same high-quality, trusted care they have come to expect.”