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What time is SpaceX’s Starship Flight 9 launch on May 27?

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May 23, 2025

What time is SpaceX’s Starship Flight 9 launch on May 27?

SpaceX has unveiled the target date for its next Starship megarocket launch, hoping the third time will be the charm after two failures earlier this year. But if you plan to watch the launch live, you’ll need to know when to tune in and for that, space fans, we’ve got you covered.

The Starship Flight 9 launch, as it’s called, is scheduled to launch no earlier than Tuesday, May 27, at 7:30 p.m. EDT (2330 GMT) from SpaceX’s Starbase test site near Boca Chica Beach in South Texas. Like its name suggests, this will be the ninth test flight of the giant SpaceX rocket, but it is the first to attempt to reuse the giant Super Heavy booster, the first stage of Starship.

It comes after two failed launches this year, Flight 7 and Flight 8, in January and March, respectively. On those flights, SpaceX successfully returned its Super Heavy booster to Earth in back-to-back rocket catches at with giant chopsticks, but the Ship stage of the rocket failed shortly after liftoff.

What time is SpaceX’s Starship Flight 9 launch?

SpaceX is currently targeting a 7:30 p.m. EDT (2330 GMT) launch time for Flight 9 on May 27, but that time could shift depending on the vehicle’s status. It will be 6:30 p.m. local time in Texas. SpaceX has not listed a specific window for the flight, but has followed 30-minute windows in the past, which could put the launch anytime between 7:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. EDT (2330-0000 GMT), if the company does so again.

The launch date, itself, is a no earlier than date, but local officials for the area around SpaceX’s Starbase have announced road closures for the area through May 29, suggesting back up days on May 28 and May 29 are possible.

Related: Read our SpaceX Starship and Super Heavy guide for a detailed look

SpaceX is being extra careful with this launch to test the reuse of its massive Super Heavy booster. The booster on Flight 9 was use to launch the Flight 7 Ship in January, with only four of its 33 Raptor engines being replaced for this mission.

The entire Starship vehicle, when assembled, stands about 400 feet (122 meters), making it the world’s largest and most powerful rocket. It is designed to be fully reusable to enable trips to low Earth orbit, the moon (NASA’s picked Starship to land Artemis astronauts in 2027), and ultimately fly to Mars.

Can I watch SpaceX’s Starship Flight 9 launch?

Watch live! SpaceX to launch Starship on 9th flight test – YouTube

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Yes, you can watch SpaceX’s Starship Flight 9 launch. The company will offer a free live webcast of the launch on May 27 starting at 7 p.m. EST (2300 GMT), about 30 minutes before liftoff. You can watch that livestream on SpaceX’s Flight 9 mission page, as well as on the @SpaceX X account and X TV app.

Space.com will also simulcast the SpaceX webcast on this page, our homepage and via YouTube.

NASASpaceflight.com will offer its own livestream YouTube, and will include a substantial prelaunch show with views of fueling and more. The channel also offers live 24/7 views of SpaceX’s Starship and Starbase operations.

SpaceX Starship Flight 9 – YouTube
SpaceX Starship Flight 9 - YouTube

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If you plan to travel to South Texas to see Starship Flight 9 in person, there are several places where you can observe the launch.

South Padre Island offers a clear view of the launch from its Cameron County Amphithear in Isla Blanca Park. The nearby shoreline of Port Isabel is another option, but plan ahead as traffic can be heavy at times.

How long is SpaceX’s Starship Flight 9?

A diagram showing SpaceX's Flight 9 Starship mission profile.

A diagram showing SpaceX’s Flight 9 Starship mission profile. The flight should last just over 1 hour. (Image credit: SpaceX)

SpaceX’s Starship Flight 9 mission is expected to last just over one hour and is hoping to replicate the path of its immediate predecessor, Starship Flight 8 in March, before that mission ended in failure. SpaceX had hoped to attempt a mock Starlink satellite deployment on Flight 7 (among other tests) before attempting a “soft landing” in the Indian Ocean and sinking.

The Starship upper stage will again target multiple in-space objectives, including the deployment of eight Starlink simulators, similar in size to next-generation Starlink satellites,” SpaceX wrote in a mission overview. “The Starlink simulators will be on the same suborbital trajectory as Starship and are expected to demise upon entry. A relight of a single Raptor engine while in space is also planned.”

The Super Heavy booster, meanwhile, will NOT attempt to return to its launch site and be captured by SpaceX’s giant Mechazilla chopsticks. Instead, it will attempt a soft landing in the Gulf of Mexico and be discarded. That’s because it is the first time SpaceX is attempting to refly such a huge rocket.

Swipe to scroll horizontally

SpaceX Starship Countdown Timeline
TIME (Hr:Min:Sec)	EVENT	Header Cell – Column 2
T-1:15:00	Flight director poll for fuel loading	Row 0 – Cell 2
T-0:51:37	Starship liquid oxygen loading begins	Row 1 – Cell 2
T-0:45:20	Starship liquid methane loading begins	Row 2 – Cell 2
T-0:41:37	Super Heavy liquid methane loading begins	Row 3 – Cell 2
T-0:35:52	Super Heavy liquid oxygen loading begins	Row 4 – Cell 2
T-00:19:40	Super Heavy Raptor engine chilldown	Row 5 – Cell 2
T-00:3:20	Starship fueling complete	Row 6 – Cell 2
T-00:2:50	Super Heavy fueling complete	Row 7 – Cell 2
T-00:0:30	Flight Director GO for launch	Row 8 – Cell 2
T-00:00:10	Flame deflector activation	Row 9 – Cell 2
T-00:00:03	Raptor ignition sequence startup	Row 10 – Cell 2
T-00:00:00	Liftoff (“Excitement Guaranteed,” SpaceX says)	Row 11 – Cell 2

Swipe to scroll horizontally

SpaceX Starship Test Flight 9 Timeline
TIME (Hr:Min:Sec)	FLIGHT EVENT	Header Cell – Column 2
T+00:02	Liftoff	Row 0 – Cell 2
T+01:02	Starship/Super Heavy reach Max Q	Row 1 – Cell 2
T+02:35	Super Heavy main engine cutoff	Row 2 – Cell 2
T+02:37	Hot-staging separation/Starship Raptor engine ignition	Row 3 – Cell 2
T+02:47	Super Heavy boostback burn startup	Row 4 – Cell 2
T+03:27	Super Heavy boostback burn engine shutdown	Row 5 – Cell 2
T+03:29	Hot-stage jettison	Row 6 – Cell 2
T+06:19	Super Heavy landing burn startup	Row 7 – Cell 2
T+06:40	Super Heavy landing burn shutdown	Row 8 – Cell 2
T+08:56	Starship engine cutoff	Row 9 – Cell 2
T+00:18:26	Payload deploy demo	Row 10 – Cell 2
T+00:37:49	Starship engine relight demonstration	Row 11 – Cell 2
T+00:47:50	Starship reentry	Row 12 – Cell 2
T+01:03:11	Starship transonic	Row 13 – Cell 2
T+1:04:26	Starship is subsonic	Row 14 – Cell 2
T+1:06:11	Landing flip	Row 15 – Cell 2
T+1:06:16	Landing burn	Row 16 – Cell 2
T+1:06:38	“An exciting landing!” SpaceX says.	Row 17 – Cell 2

“The booster on this flight test is also attempting several flight experiments to gather real-world performance data on future flight profiles and off-nominal scenarios,” SpaceX wrote in the overview. “To maximize the safety of launch infrastructure at Starbase, the Super Heavy booster will attempt these experiments while on a trajectory to an offshore landing point in the Gulf of America and will not return to the launch site for catch.” (President Trump has signed an executive order renaming the Gulf or Mexico body of water the Gulf of America.)

If all goes well, the Flight 9 Super Heavy booster should land in the Gulf of Mexico just under seven minutes after launch, with the payload deployment test about 18 minutes after liftoff and the Starship landing in the Indian Ocean about 66 minutes into the flight.

What if Starship can’t launch on May 28?

SpaceX conducts a long-duration static fire test with a Starship upper stage on May 12, 2025 ahead of the vehicle's upcoming test flight.

SpaceX conducts a long-duration static fire test with a Starship upper stage on May 12, 2025 ahead of the vehicle’s upcoming test flight. (Image credit: SpaceX)

If SpaceX is unable to launch Starship’s Flight 9 test mission on May 27, the company could try again on May 28 and May 29.

A public advisory from Cameron County, which contains Starbase, stated that road closures are possible from May 27 to May 29 for the Starship launch activities.

“I have ordered the closure of Boca Chica Beach and Hwy 4 for the purpose of protecting Public Health and Safety during SpaceX flight testing activities on May 27, 2025, in the time period between 10:30 a.m. C.S.T. to 9:30 p.m. C.S.T. and in the alternative on May 28, 2025, or May 29, 2025, from 10:30 a.m. C.S.T. to 9:30 p.m. C.S.T., of the same day,” Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño, Jr. wrote in the advisory. “Should SpaceX not complete its planned flight-testing activity on May 27, 2025, then SpaceX may use the alternate dates to complete its testing activities.”

As mentioned above, SpaceX has repeatedly warned that its schedule is dynamic and could change. The company plans to share its latest launch targets via its @SpaceX account on X.

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Brittney Griner reenergized with Dream, eyes L.A. Olympics

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May 23, 2025

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Brittney Griner reenergized with Dream, eyes L.A. Olympics

Ramona ShelburneMay 16, 2025, 05:28 PM ET
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- Senior writer for ESPN.com
- Spent seven years at the Los Angeles Daily News

Brittney Griner says she feels reenergized by her fresh start with the Atlanta Dream after 11 seasons with the Phoenix Mercury and has set a goal of playing at the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028.

“It’s a goal of mine,” Griner told ESPN in an extended interview this week as she prepares for her debut with the Dream on Friday night against the Washington Mystics. “It hasn’t been in the U.S. for a while now, so I think to be able to play at the Olympics in your home country would be amazing. My parents have never been to the Olympics. So, I’m going to strive for it and try to do what I need to do so I can get that call-up or at least be at the camp and help out the ones that will go, whatever it’s going to be.”

Griner, 34, played sparingly for Team USA as it won a gold medal at the Paris Olympics. But the three-time gold medalist says her offseason move to the Dream has her feeling stronger mentally and physically than she has in years.

“You get comfortable, and sometimes you don’t want to get out of that bubble,” Griner said. “But it’s like the one thing that you definitely need. Life will push you out of that bubble sometimes, and I’m just glad that I finally did it. I’m glad I did it and came here.”

Griner told ESPN that she wasn’t looking to leave the Mercury after last season, and expected that she’d have the same opportunity to retire as a member of the team that drafted her No. 1 in 2013 as her longtime teammate, Diana Taurasi.

But things changed when the Mercury informed her before free agency that they were likely going in a different direction. Phoenix revamped its roster by trading for forwards Satou Sabally and Alyssa Thomas.

“I was doing everything as if I was going to still have that jersey on,” Griner said. “Then, there was a meeting right before I left to go to Unrivaled and I found out like, ‘Oh, it looks like they want to do something different. This is news to me.’ I wish I would’ve known way sooner, but hey, life happens.”

Griner drove home from her meeting with the Mercury on her motorcycle and tried to digest the news. She pulled over to call her longtime agent, Lindsay Kagawa Colas, and her wife, Cherelle Griner.

They had been looking for a new house in Phoenix all summer but nothing felt right. Perhaps that was a sign.

“Basically was told that I don’t know what your future holds,” Griner said, when asked if she was given the option to return to Phoenix. “After I heard that, it became my decision because I want to be somewhere where they know they want me, where they believe in me and my game.”

The Atlanta Dream were her first choice. She loved the players on the team and felt she’d fit in well with All-Stars Allisha Gray and Rhyne Howard.

After getting over the initial shock and disappointment that her time in Phoenix was over, Griner was becoming more excited about the future. She had been comfortable in Phoenix. And she would forever be grateful to the organization for its help in securing her release from a Russian prison, where she was detained for 10 months in 2022.

But even before the Mercury told her they were going in a different direction, she had wondered if she might have grown too comfortable. After the Mercury lost their playoff game to the Minnesota Lynx, a reporter asked Griner if she was contemplating retirement, as well.

“I’m like, ‘Dang, I’m not the one retiring. [Taurasi’s] the one retiring,'” Griner said. “We are not the same age. We didn’t come into the league together.”

So far in Atlanta, Griner has looked as dominant as ever. She finished with 16 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists and 1 block in her first preseason game. But she also looked different — shooting 3-pointers and getting out in transition.

The Dream are playing new coach Karl Smesko’s five-out system, something that Griner has never done, but says she’s embracing.

“It’s definitely different,” Griner said. “I mean, we’re playing five-out. I’m learning how to move better out on the perimeter, where my spots are on the perimeter, instead of just being down low. Me and Brionna [Jones] are complementing each other really well. I thoroughly enjoy playing with Bri. A lot of people thought two bigs are not going to work. But they’re going to have to figure out how to guard us, and it is actually working really good.”

“Life will push you out of that bubble sometimes, and I’m just glad that I finally did it. I’m glad I did it and came here.”

Brittney Griner on leaving the Mercury and signing with the Dream

Griner said Smesko suggested an adjustment to her shot the first day they started working together, and she has grown much more comfortable and consistent with it.

She’s also getting out on the break more often.

“I don’t look fast, but I move. It takes me way less steps than everybody else,” she said jokingly. “I don’t have to be out there pumping, going crazy.”

One thing she will not do, however, is hang on too long.

“As long as I can put up numbers and I can help my team out,” Griner said, “I want to play. When I can’t do that, or we have to hide me in the corner or put me on the easiest matchup, I will walk away. I don’t want to be a liability on the court and there’s too many good players coming along, too. I’m not going to sit there and just hold on to a spot because I just can’t let go.”

It’s all new and different from anything in her life and WNBA career. Griner and Cherelle welcomed a son, Bash, last summer and are adjusting to life as new parents.

But there are still constant reminders of the 10 months she spent in a Russian prison.

“I learned that I’m definitely adaptable,” she said. “Honestly, I can make myself fit whatever I need to do to be OK.”

As she talked, she looked down at her right hand. The other day, when she was feeling down, she drew four dots on her hand.

“My cellmate taught me that a lot of the people that have been in isolation in the prisons, that’s a tattoo that they normally get,” Griner said. “It’s just kind of like a reminder. You made it through. You literally sat by yourself in a prison with no one, so you’re good. So, if I’m having a hard day, I’ll put it on there and I’ll look down and see it and be like, ‘I made it through that. I’m good.’

“What I’m feeling right now, this s— ain’t nothing.”

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Why Brittney Griner has been ‘rejuvenated’ since joining Atlanta Dream

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May 23, 2025

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Why Brittney Griner has been ‘rejuvenated’ since joining Atlanta Dream

ATLANTA — For the first decade of Brittney Griner’s WNBA career, she was a social butterfly in the locker room, regularly asking teammates about their plans for after games or practices.

“What we doing? What we doing?” she’d repeat.

But now, as a 34-year-old veteran, Griner said, “I know what I’m doing.”

“I’m gonna go wash these bottles. I’m gonna go play with my son. We’re gonna watch some Gracie’s Corner,” she said, referring to an animated educational children’s YouTube channel. “It’s just a little bit different now.”

Griner and her wife, Cherelle, are parents to 10-month-old son, Bash, who is wide-eyed, curious and learning to walk. Parenting responsibilities are not the only difference in Griner’s life this spring.

For the first time since being selected No. 1 in the 2013 WNBA Draft by the Phoenix Mercury, Griner is playing on a new team. She signed with the Atlanta Dream this past offseason. It’s a move as significant to her as it is to her new franchise. Although Atlanta has made the playoffs the past two seasons, it has just one winning season since 2014. Griner, a 10-time All-Star and three-time Olympic gold medalist, could be the steady veteran who can anchor their future.

It’s early, but she has already woven her infectious spirit into the fanbase. She attended Atlanta’s season-ticket holder kickoff event — a cookout held at Piedmont Park — in May. For more than an hour, Griner and her teammates chatted with fans, danced and posed for pictures. When 6-foot-9 Griner stepped over a park fence to grab donuts from a nearby food truck, Atlanta supporters were impressed. One small step for Griner. One huge leap for the Dream.

“(Griner) is very easy going, fun, playful,” Dream general manager Dan Padover said.

Griner will make her regular-season home debut Thursday night against the Indiana Fever, yet in many ways, she seems to have already found what she was looking for.

“Rejuvenated for sure,” Griner said. “I definitely have a new energy being here in Atlanta. I feel like I’m at home.”

As Griner determined what was next in her career, she wanted to find a place where she felt comfortable. She didn’t enter the offseason thinking she would leave the Mercury. She had only ever played in Phoenix, where she won a WNBA championship in 2014. She thought about a maxim from her father: “You don’t give up when the times are tough. You buckle down. You endure and find a way to get out of them.”

After 11 WNBA seasons and reaching the back half of her career, Griner initially thought she would help Phoenix get back on top before eventually exiting the game.

“Where I got drafted, I definitely, in my mind, wanted to retire. But it wasn’t up to me,” she said.

Griner said that before playing for Unrivaled — a new professional three-on-three league that tipped off in January — she visited the Mercury facility for a matter unrelated to her unrestricted free agency. Only then, Griner said, did she hear from Mercury representatives that her future in Phoenix was uncertain.

Griner flourished there as a two-time WNBA scoring leader and became one of the WNBA’s most recognizable stars. When she was detained in Russia for more than nine months in 2022, she was grateful that the Mercury helped raise awareness about her imprisonment and led outcries for her release.

So learning the franchise was prepared to possibly part with her came as a surprise.

“I was like, ‘I want to be somewhere where they know for a fact they want me,’” Griner said.

On the first full day of free agency in January, she met with Padover, owner Larry Gottesdiener, first-year Dream coach Karl Smesko, assistant general manager Brooklyn Cartwright and others from Atlanta’s coaching staff. For an hour, the franchise pitched how she would be a great fit with their existing foundation and the city. Growing up in the Houston suburbs and graduating from Baylor, Griner had always been fond of living in the South — the charm of its towns, the region’s culture, and, especially, its food.

“More than anything, she was really looking for a home,” Padover said.

Griner also met with representatives from the Dallas Wings and the Las Vegas Aces in free agency. But a few days after meeting with the Dream, she spent an afternoon boating and fishing with three Atlanta players — two-time All-Stars Rhyne Howard and Allisha Gray, and two-time WNBA champion and All-Defensive first-team guard Jordin Canada. Like Griner, they were also participating in Unrivaled.

By then, she had decided to play for Atlanta, and she wanted to hang out with her new teammates. They enjoyed the waters off Miami Beach, and Griner, an avid fisher, caught a king mackerel. But there was other business to handle.

On the boat, Griner filmed a video — with cameos from her boatmates turned teammates — for social media where she announced herself as the newest player in Atlanta.

“It was very special because not only was it just her announcing, but her already wanting to be a part of us,” Howard said.

Griner is helping further energize one of the league’s budding franchises, too.

In February 2021, Gottesdiener, the founder and chairman of a leading real estate private equity company, led a trio of investors to purchase the team. Along with business partner Suzanne Abair and former Dream star Renee Montgomery, Gottesdiener said they walked into what was “tantamount to an expansion franchise.” Atlanta had only seven employees in its corporate office. Within months of their new ownership, the franchise parted ways with its team president and cycled through head coaches.

Since then, the Dream have rebuilt their infrastructure. They now have more than 50 full-time corporate employees, with aspirations to keep growing. Gottesdiener said Atlanta is “actively negotiating” a new practice facility as well as working on plans for what would be the WNBA’s first purpose-built stadium.

The Dream have also reestablished themselves with sharp maneuvers rather than relying on winning the WNBA Draft lottery. Atlanta has made 10 trades since 2022, acquiring key draft picks (including the No. 1 pick in the 2022 draft, which was used to select Howard) and players (including Gray and Canada).

That trio was a draw for Griner as she thought about where she wanted to spend the next stage of her career. She’d observed their humor and warmth at a recent Team USA Olympic camp and enjoyed hanging out with them.

“You don’t hear mess about the Atlanta Dream,” Griner said.

Jitters washed over Griner as she entered the Dream’s Core 4 facility on the first day of training camp. But almost immediately, Griner settled into her new environment, and her teammates felt her presence.

Griner said her father instilled in her the importance of connection. He taught her to always walk into a room and speak to everybody. So Griner began to talk, and lead.

“Every day is a gift,” she said. “Tomorrow is not guaranteed. You never know. I just want to take advantage of all the time I can while I’m here.”

Nobody knows that better than Griner, whose detention in Russia provided her with newfound perspective.

During Atlanta’s first preseason workout, Griner gathered a few younger players and delivered some hard truths.

“As much as we want y’all to make the team, not every single one of y’all are going to make it,” she said she told them. “That’s not the end of the world. The goal in life is to be able to provide for your family and have a job. Going overseas is not a bad thing. And that doesn’t mean you’ll never be back in the W.”

Smesko, a first-time WNBA coach who spent more than two decades coaching Florida Gulf Coast, has watched Griner pull players aside to teach about patience and effectively using the post. (Griner and fellow high-profile free agent acquisition Brionna Jones are two of the WNBA’s best bigs around the basket.)

In between the first and second quarter of Atlanta’s preseason opener against the Washington Mystics, Griner provided clear feedback on the Dream’s defense, despite leading by 20 points.

And as the Fever made a late run in Tuesday’s game against Atlanta, Griner helped calm her teammates on the bench and on defense.

”She just has natural leadership qualities about her,” Smesko said. “She’s shown great leadership. She’s somebody that makes sure that we keep things going.”

“Having her on the court with me, I get to take a deep breath,” Howard said after Tuesday’s one-point win at Indiana.

Howard has shouldered the responsibilities of being a franchise centerpiece. A two-time All-Star, she remains integral to Atlanta’s present and future, but Padover has noticed a newfound freedom in the 25-year-old wing.

“The people we brought in here really help her feel some comfort that she doesn’t have to do it herself,” he said.

“BG’s making it hard for everybody else to be quiet,” Howard said. “It’s like, we have to match her energy.”

Griner is playing a different role, too. The Dream hired Smesko in part because of FGCU’s 3-point success and offensive creativity. Atlanta, which had a league-worst offensive rating in 2024, has already been much improved. It scored at least 90 points in its first two games.

Despite her size advantage, Griner hasn’t just camped out around the block this season. She opened both of Atlanta’s preseason games with 3s. Expect her and Jones to play off of each other in high-low actions as the season progresses, though their post play remains important as well.

Gottesdiener said he expects this Dream season will be one to “savor” and Griner said she is doing just that, finding bliss with the franchise and the city.

After training camp practices, she routinely returned home and folded into a new favorite chair on the back porch of her home in Atlanta’s suburbs, and relaxed alongside Cherelle and Bash. She watched squirrels running across her backyard and heard birds singing.

“It seems so small, but those things mean a lot to me,” Griner said. “That’s my peace, and I have it right here. It’s given me new life.”

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

Atlanta Dream, Phoenix Mercury, WNBA

2025 The Athletic Media Company

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Planned Parenthood to close 4 clinics in Iowa, 4 in Minnesota

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May 23, 2025

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Planned Parenthood to close 4 clinics in Iowa, 4 in Minnesota

Four of the six Planned Parenthood clinics in Iowa and four in Minnesota will shut down in a year, the Midwestern affiliate operating them said Friday, blaming a freeze in federal funds, budget cuts proposed in Congress and state restrictions on abortion.

The clinics closing in Iowa include the only Planned Parenthood facility in the state that provides abortion procedures, in Ames, home to Iowa State University. Services will be shifted and the organization will still offer medication abortions in Des Moines and medication and medical abortion services in Iowa City.

Two of the clinics being shut down by Planned Parenthood North Central States are in the Minneapolis area, in Apple Valley and Richfield. The others are in central Minnesota in Alexandria and Bemidji. Of the four, the Richfield clinic provides abortion procedures.

The Planned Parenthood affiliate said it would lay off 66 employees and ask 37 additional employees to move to different clinics. The organization also said it plans to keep investing in telemedicine services and sees 20,000 patients a year virtually. The affiliate serves five states — Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota.

“We have been fighting to hold together an unsustainable infrastructure as the landscape shifts around us and an onslaught of attacks continues,” Ruth Richardson, the affiliate’s president and CEO, said in a statement.

Of the remaining 15 clinics operated by Planned Parenthood North Central States, six will provide abortion procedures — five of them in Minnesota, including three in the Minneapolis area. The other clinic is in Omaha, Nebraska.

The affiliate said that in April, President Donald Trump’s administration froze $2.8 million in federal funds for Minnesota to provide birth control and other services, such as cervical cancer screenings and testing for sexually transmitted diseases.

While federal funds can’t be used for most abortions, abortion opponents have long argued that Planned Parenthood affiliates should not receive any taxpayer dollars, saying the money still indirectly underwrites abortion services.

Planned Parenthood North Central States also cited proposed cuts in Medicaid, which provides health coverage for low-income Americans, as well as a Trump administration proposal to eliminate funding for teenage pregnancy prevention programs.

In addition, Republican-led Iowa last year banned most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant, causing the number performed there to drop 60% in the first six months the law was in effect and dramatically increasing the number of patients traveling to Minnesota and Nebraska.

After the closings, Planned Parenthood North Central States will operate 10 brick-and-mortar clinics in Minnesota, two in Iowa, two in Nebraska, and one in South Dakota. It operates none in North Dakota, though its Moorhead, Minnesota, clinic is across the Red River from Fargo, North Dakota.

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this story was first published on May 23, 2025. It was updated on May 24, 2025 to make clear that despite Planned Parenthood closures, the organization will still offer medication abortions in Des Moines and medication and medical abortion services in Iowa City.

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Planned Parenthood to close 4 clinics in Iowa, 4 in Minnesota

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