Help Planned Parenthood pack the hearing room with supporters and send a message to the Michigan Legislature.
The attacks never end. On Wednesday, January 27th, the Michigan House Appropriations Committee will hear testimony on House Bill 4145. Sponsored by Representative Thomas Hooker, HB 4145 prohibits State of Michigan family planning funding from going to providers that offer abortion services.
Once again, legislators are willfully overlooking the fact that the vast majority of Planned Parenthood’s services are family planning services that can actually help prevent abortion, including birth control.
Planned Parenthood Mid and South Michigan and Planned Parenthood Advocates of Michigan President and CEO Lori Carpentier will be testifying at the hearing, to help committee members and the public at large learn more about these services. They include well women visits, life-saving cancer screenings, age-appropriate sex education, STD testing and treatment, and so much more. Planned Parenthood looks forward to talking about how its funding actually works — and having a real discussion about the importance of family planning and Planned Parenthood in Michigan.
Over the last decade, family planning funding in the state budget has been nearly eliminated.
This legislation will deny Planned Parenthood future access to state resources that would help provide Michigan’s most vulnerable populations with checkups, cancer screenings and birth control. Planned Parenthood currently isn’t receiving state family planning funding, but this legislation would prevent state resources from ever making their way back to Planned Parenthood for this important service.
Planned Parenthood’s 21 health centers across Michigan provide access to safe, quality, affordable family planning services to 71,000 women and men each year. As the state’s largest and most trusted provider of family planning service in the state, Planned Parenthood provides the only healthcare 75 percent of its patients receive in a given year.
What’s more, investment in family planning makes for good policy and good politics. Each dollar spent on family planning in Michigan saves more than $6 in public healthcare costs. Planned Parenthood offers patients access to critical, preventive care that is good for families and good for Michigan. An overwhelming number of Michiganders support Planned Parenthood and public funding of our services.
While Planned Parenthood seeks to ensure the health and safety of Michigan residents, the Michigan Legislature continues to advance anti-women’s health legislation to achieve an extremist, ideological goal.
Join Planned Parenthood at the committee hearing to stand in opposition to the continued attacks on Planned Parenthood and the patients they serve.
RSVP to let Planned Parenthood know you’ll be there: Wednesday, January 27th at 8:30 AM, Michigan State Capitol, Room 352.
[Image courtesy of Planned Parenthood.]
