MIRS News Service is reporting this week that the Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) and Health and Human Services (DHHS) issued a joint statement clearing Planned Parenthood affiliates in Michigan of any illegal activities related to donations of fetal tissue. The two agencies have been investigating Planned Parenthood after Republican Senator Phil Pavlov called for the investigation in the wake […]

Michigan Republicans have taken no steps to advance legislation introduced in March. Michigan House Republicans are wasting no time pushing through anti-choice abortion coercion legislation they claim is in the best interests of women, even though it doesn’t protect women from more common types of reproductive coercion, a form of domestic abuse. Yet the Republican-led Legislature has been sitting on a package […]

Much as most of us wish that the Courser/Gamrat saga would just end, there is no sign of that happening. Late last week, former Courser & Gamrat staffers Ben Graham and Keith Allard filed a lawsuit against the two claiming they were fired in violation of the Michigan Whisleblowers’ Protection Act: Ex-staffers have sued former state Reps. Todd Courser and […]

These bills aren’t about protecting women from reproductive control. They are about satisfying anti-abortion activists. As early as this week, the Michigan Legislature could vote on a pair of bills that would criminalize the act of forcing a woman to have an abortion. Although we can all agree abortion coercion is a bad thing, it’s not the problem Right to […]

We live in an time when it often feels as if there are no consequences. After losing two wars, a financial crisis and a concerted effort to prevent a recovery, Republicans now hold more elected state and federal offices than any time since the Great Depression. Instead of preventing gun deaths, the gun industry profits off them by raising the […]

With just a month remaining before the primary election to choose the Republican and Democratic candidates in the 82nd Michigan House district, Todd Courser is in a three-way tie to replace himself with himself according to new polling results released this morning by Grassroots Midwest, Inside Michigan Politics, and Target Insyght. The poll of 300 likely Republican primary voters in […]

It’s not often that I agree with a hard-right Republican like Rick Jones but today I find myself in that position. Jones has introduced legislation – S.B. 534 – which would end domestic partner benefits for state employees in Michigan. It’s a move that I support. I support this because, thanks to the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling this summer […]

Catholic hospital systems don’t adhere to accepted medical standards, and the ACLU is demanding an end to this religious exemption with a federal lawsuit. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the ACLU of Michigan announced a federal lawsuit filed today on behalf of their members against Trinity Health Corporation, one of the largest Catholic health systems in the country, […]

During the travesty that was the Congressional hearing on Planned Parenthood this week, there was plenty of disgusting hypocrisy coming from the Republican side of the aisle. But the winner of the Most Disgusting Hypocrisy Award has to go to my own Congressman, Tim Walberg (MI-07). As he began his remarks and interrogation of Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards, he […]

The following guest post is by Mitchell Robinson and was first posted at his education-focused blog MitchellRobinson.net. He offered it up to me to share with the readers of Eclectablog and I immediately took him up on it having already read his beautiful prose. Robinson is associate professor and chair of music education at Michigan State University. He has held […]

In conjunction with the widely-successful National Pink Out Day yesterday, Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards voluntarily appeared before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to answer questions about their funding. The hearing was prompted by the highly-edited videos that were intentionally cut-and-pasted together to make it look as though Planned Parenthood was making a profit off of the selling […]