Latest news with #PlannedParenthoodofMichigan
Yahoo
05-08-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Hey Jane expands to Michigan, offering telehealth medication abortions, other online care
New York-based Hey Jane has expanded its telehealth business to Michigan, offering abortion pills and emergency contraception, also known as the morning-after pill or Plan B, as well as birth control and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases, yeast infections, urinary tract infections and more. "We really do view it as an important step to increase access for reproductive and sexual health care in the states, and in particular, in states that have taken really significant action to protect (abortion) care," said Kiki Freedman, co-founder and CEO of Hey Jane, which now operates in 22 states and the District of Columbia. "We ... want to be sure Michiganders have as many options as possible." The expansion of Hey Jane into Michigan comes as access to in-person abortion and other reproductive health care shrinks in the state — despite a 2022 ballot initiative that amended the Michigan constitution to protect the right to legal abortion. Why is it difficult to find in-person abortion clinics in Michigan? That's partly because of a physician shortage. About one-third of Michigan's counties have no obstetrician-gynecologists at all, the office of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer reported in January, when she signed a bill into law that allows pharmacists to prescribe and dispense hormonal contraceptives, including birth control pills, vaginal rings, patches and emergency contraceptives. And 73 of Michigan's 83 counties have no in-person abortion provider, according to Planned Parenthood of Michigan has 10 remaining health centers in the state. It closed three Michigan clinics in April — including its only site in the Upper Peninsula — and consolidated two Ann Arbor locations to one. At the time, its leaders said the closures would help it remain financially sustainable amid efforts by the Trump administration to freeze federal funding for family planning services. Then in July, Congress passed the sweeping "One Big Beautiful Bill Act," and President Donald Trump swiftly signed the legislation into law. Among the provisions: a one-year ban on federal Medicaid payments to any large, nonprofit health center that also provides abortions. That meant that Planned Parenthood affiliates would be unable to get Medicaid reimbursements even for such services as cancer screenings, family planning visits, counseling, and testing for sexually transmitted infections. Federal law already prohibited the use of Medicaid dollars to pay for abortions, except in very limited circumstances. Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, called it "a backdoor abortion ban" that would force the closure of as many as 200 more of its health centers. Did Medicaid funding stop for Planned Parenthood affiliates? Yes, for a little while. Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts, and Planned Parenthood Association of Utah sued the Trump administration on July 7, saying the law violated their First Amendment and equal protection rights. The same day, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani issued a temporary halt to the funding freeze, but the order expired after 14 days. Planned Parenthood said some of its health centers had to stop billing Medicaid, Reuters reported, when the temporary injunction expired. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and the attorneys general of more than 20 other states, the District of Columbia and New Jersey Gov. Josh Shapiro, also sued. 'The Trump Administration's push to strip funding from these providers is an unlawful political tactic aimed at undermining care, even in states like Michigan, where the right to reproductive freedom is protected by our constitution," Nessel said in a statement. National Right to Life President Carol Tobias, however, said the Planned Parenthood affiliates' federal lawsuit was a "desperate attempt" to take public dollars. 'Planned Parenthood's priority is abortion — not women's health, not compassion, and certainly not life,' Tobias said in a statement. On July 28, Talwani issued another ruling, finding in favor of the Planned Parenthood affiliates. She said the federal government "shall take all steps necessary to ensure that Medicaid funding continues to be disbursed." White House spokesperson Harrison Fields called her decision "not only absurd but illogical and incorrect," Reuters reported, noting that the Trump administration had appealed an earlier decision in the same case. "It is orders like these that underscore the audacity of the lower courts as well as the chaos within the judicial branch," Fields said in a statement. "We look forward to ultimate victory on the issue." Hey Jane's Freedman called the efforts to strip federal Medicaid funding from Planned Parenthood "appalling." "We think people should be able to choose the type of care they get, whether that is in-person, whether that is through telehealth," Freedman said. "We do think telemedicine has a big potential to fill some of that gap. It can be more convenient for folks. They don't have to travel. They don't have to take off work or find child care. It can be more affordable. It can be more private and we are also able to offer full wraparound support. "But at the end of the day, we need in-person clinics, too. It has been devastating to see these closures." Medication abortion can be used only for a limited term during the pregnancy. Hey Jane prescribes the two-drug combination of mifepristone and misoprostol up until the 11th week, Freedman said. To have an abortion after that requires an in-clinic surgical procedure, she said. "People do need care beyond that ... and they absolutely should be able to get it." What is the cost of medication abortion? Cost can be a barrier for many seeking abortion. The Kaiser Family Foundation reported that among all abortion-providers in 2023, the median out-of-pocket cost for a medication abortion in the first trimester was $563. It was $650 for an in-clinic surgical abortion. The foundation found it's cheaper to get the medication from a telehealth provider. The median cost of medication abortion from virtual clinics in 2023 was $150. "We know financial accessibility is absolutely critical to our mission," Freedman said of Hey Jane. "And so we are the only fully digital provider to accept private insurance plans as well as Medicaid in some states. We do everything we can to offer pricing that's as low as possible. ... We do offer a sliding scale for our cash-pay patients and partner with local abortion funds for those who need financial assistance." The out-of-pocket cost for a medication abortion through Hey Jane can range from free to $299, Freedman said, depending on insurance coverage and whether a person gets assistance from an independent abortion fund. "Abortion funds are doing some of the bravest and most important work in this care space right now," Freedman said. "We know that financial accessibility and logistical support are both critical for folks being able to get care." Can people in states with abortion bans come to Michigan for treatment? Yes. People living in states other than Michigan, where there are restrictive abortion laws or outright bans, can obtain medication abortion from Hey Jane if the patient can travel across state lines and take the medicine while they are in Michigan. "We know that patients need care across the country, regardless of where they live, and telemedicine for many can make that a bit easier if you do need to travel for care," Freedman said. "In all states, it remains fully legal to travel to a state where the care is legal to receive treatment. "Hey Jane can absolutely help you out with that. We are able to provide logistical support," and mail prescriptions to a post office for pick up. "You don't even need a P.O. Box," Freedman said. "You can pick it up at the counter with an ID," she said. "It is a good option for folks who may need to travel for support." The Guttmacher Institute reported that in 2024, more than 1,600 people traveled from other states to Michigan for abortions in 2024. Contact Kristen Shamus: kshamus@ Subscribe to the Detroit Free Press. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Hey Jane expands to Michigan, offers telehealth medication abortions Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
06-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Planned Parenthood provides basic health care. If they close, where will many women go?
When the Trump administration suddenly froze federal funding to more than 100 Planned Parenthood clinics this spring, the organization's Michigan branch was already deep into hard discussions about its finances. 'The leadership team and our board had been scenario planning for months to try to fill those gaps to see how we could continue providing care,' said Ashlea Phenicie, chief external affairs officer of Planned Parenthood of Michigan. The only option was clear. Michigan's 14 Planned Parenthood clinics serve tens of thousands of women. In order to save clinics around the state that were either busier or in places where women had few other options, the team would have to close multiple clinics, including the only one in the state's Upper Peninsula, a large, isolated and mostly rural area surrounded by a stretch of Lake Michigan. In Ann Arbor, home of Michigan State University, the city's two clinics would be combined. It's a reality playing out across the country. At least 20 Planned Parenthood clinics have closed or will close within the year. For decades, the health care organization has been squeezed by the same pressures choking nearly all U.S. providers –– low insurance reimbursement rates, blocked Medicaid expansion, understaffing and rising costs of providing medical care that have forced hospitals and health clinic closures throughout the country. Uniquely, Planned Parenthood, a nonprofit that serves more than 2 million patients nationwide every year, many of them uninsured, underinsured or who qualify for Medicaid, has also become the target of pointed funding cuts that started under the first Trump administration. 'What is different this time around is that it's much more sweeping. It's a deeper and broader cut that will affect both more clinics and more people,' said Farzana Kapadia, a professor of epidemiology and population health at the New York University School of Global Public Health. In March, the Trump administration withheld funding by excluding many Planned Parenthood clinics from the Title X family planning program, a federal grant program that funds family planning and reproductive health care. Then, in late May, House Republicans delivered another enormous blow, voting to end funding for Planned Parenthood as part of the reconciliation bill. Federal law already restricts federal funds from being used for abortion, except in cases of incest, rape or if a mother's life is in danger, through a law called the Hyde Amendment. But if passed, the reconciliation bill would cut off Medicaid reimbursement to any nonprofit that primarily offers family planning or reproductive health services, provides abortions beyond the Hyde Amendment exceptions and received more than $1 million in Medicaid reimbursements in 2024. As a nationwide organization, Planned Parenthood does all three. If the bill passes in the Senate, it would block Planned Parenthood clinics from billing Medicaid for any health services at all, including cancer screenings, wellness exams and birth control. It's unclear if the new legislation would apply to Planned Parenthood nationally or on a state-by-state basis. Over half of Planned Parenthood patients are covered by publicly funded health programs like Medicaid and in 2023, about 36% of all Title X services were provided by Planned Parenthood clinics. Eliminating these sources of funding would cut hundreds of millions of dollars from Planned Parenthood's care costs every year. Targeting federal funding for any type of care for Planned Parenthood clinics is a way opponents of abortion rights can attempt to shut down clinics that do provide abortion, even if they also offer other care. Phenicie said Republican lawmakers appear to understand that cutting off Planned Parenthood from Title X and Medicaid reimbursement will put the clinics that perform abortion in peril, even if these funds can't cover the procedures. The slashed funds could affect all Planned Parenthood clinics whether they offer abortion services or not. 'They know so much of our patient base is on Medicaid or needs Title X to pay for their care, they know that cutting this off will allow them to cut off access to abortion and they are willing to make that trade,' she said. Before the cuts, Planned Parenthood was already operating on thin margins. Now, clinics are struggling to operate at a loss. 'The numbers are so devastating that there are really no options other than closing some centers and consolidating others, and then investing in our virtual health centers that can serve people across the state,' Phenicie said. At least 1 in 3 women say they have gone to a Planned Parenthood clinic for care, as well as 1 in 10 men, according to a recent KFF Health poll. Nearly half of Black women have gone to a Planned Parenthood clinic, the poll found. Abortions, the main reason the Trump administration has ended support for the clinics, account for just 4% of the services Planned Parenthood provides, according to a 2024 annual report. The vast majority of Planned Parenthood's services involve basic health care for women, including diagnosing and treating urinary tract and yeast infections and screening for cervical cancer and breast cancer. Some locations offer vaccination against HPV, hepatitis B, Covid and influenza. More than half of care is related to testing for sexually transmitted infections and treatment. Another 25% is providing access to contraception, often at low or no cost. Cancer screenings and other non-abortion services make up 18%, the report showed. Those important medical services haven't swayed opponents of the clinics. In January, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., introduced a bill that sought to ban Planned Parenthood from federal funding in the same ways the federal reconciliation bill would. The bill is called the Defund Planned Parenthood Act. 'My commitment to protecting life isn't just personal, it's rooted in both science and principle. Life begins at conception, and I've spent my time in the Senate fighting to protect the right to life,' Paul said in a press release. About 40% of Planned Parenthood's funding comes from government health care reimbursements and grants. Many locations offer a sliding scale payment option for people who can't afford health care. That money comes, in part, from government programs that are now being cut. 'Cutting this funding is really about cutting access to care for people who are not insured or who are underinsured to allow for tax breaks for people who can afford their medical care,' NYU's Kapadia said. Wendy Stark, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Greater New York, said that even when a patient has private insurance, 'the reimbursement rates are just not meeting the costs of primary care. 'The U.S. health care system pays a tiny amount of health care dollars into primary and preventative care,' Stark said. 'We are sitting in a micro version of that.' Earlier this year, Planned Parenthood announced it was selling the building that housed its only Manhattan location. Planned Parenthood locations are also shuttering throughout the Midwest and in other states that have historically voted in favor of abortion rights, including Vermont. In late May, Planned Parenthood announced it will close four clinics in Minnesota within a year. The state was the first to codify the right to abortion into law after the Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade, but only one of the closing clinics performed abortions. Four of the six Planned Parenthood clinics in Iowa, including one in Ames, where Iowa State University is located, will also be shuttered. Four Illinois clinics, none which performed abortions, stopped operating in March. In April, three locations closed and two were consolidated in Michigan, where the right to abortion is enshrined into state law. Two Utah locations closed in May after losing a significant amount of funding as a result of the Title X freeze. 'We are subsidizing almost every visit we do, even with insurance,' Stark said. 'We also have a great deal of our patients who come who do not have insurance.' The decision to sell the Manhattan clinic was a strategic but difficult decision, she said. The revenue from the sale could help keep other clinics in the state operating. Both the patients and staff of the Manhattan clinic can be absorbed by Planned Parenthood's other New York City locations, which can minimize the impact the closure will have. 'When we consolidate in certain locations, we look at the whole area. Can we funnel patients to our next closest health center, are there other clinics that patients can be sent to?' Stark said, adding that this is more difficult to do in rural areas that already have extremely minimal health care options. 'If we face further erosion of our finances, we will have to make more hard decisions,' she said. Several state-level laws banned Planned Parenthood from receiving Title X funds in the decade preceding the sweeping federal exclusions. Robin Marty, the executive director of WAWC Healthcare, formerly West Alabama Women's Center, in Tuscaloosa, said these states can provide a picture of what health care may look like in states that have more recently faced Planned Parenthood closures. 'We exist as kind of a lesson to people of what resources are like if there is not a Planned Parenthood,' she said. Planned Parenthood operates just one brick-and-mortar clinic in Alabama, in Birmingham, but offers telehealth throughout the state. There are just two in Louisiana and one in the Florida Panhandle. There are no physical clinics in Mississippi, which has the highest teen birth rate in the nation. Alabama and Louisiana rank in the top seven, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. Mississippi also has the highest maternal mortality rate. Louisiana comes in second. Alabama is fourth. 'There aren't places for people to go for free birth control or STI screenings or maternal care,' she said, referring to sexually transmitted infections. WAWC Healthcare is one of the only providers in Alabama, outside of federally qualified health centers, which are run by states or counties, that does. Already, Marty said, the clinic relies heavily on nongovernmental grants in the absence of access to Title X, though the clinic does accept Medicaid. 'Every time I apply for a grant, I know I have only about a 10% chance of getting it, but I do it anyway because that's the only way my patients can get care,' she said. Other than grants, 'we rely on donors who each donate about $50 each time we contact them.' Marty said other clinics that provide some of the same services as Planned Parenthood, which are already operating on razor-thin margins, if not at a loss, will be further strained by closures. This strain will be passed onto patients. 'You are talking about individuals who are living at or below the poverty level who already can't afford health care on their own and then you are eliminating a major source of their health care,' Kapadia said. The GOP megabill, which blocks Planned Parenthood from being reimbursed with Medicaid dollars, among other Medicaid cuts, is awaiting its fate in the Senate this week. For now, Title X funding is frozen for Planned Parenthoods in 20 states. If the 'Big Beautiful Bill' passes, another 200 of the roughly 600 Planned Parenthoods will be in danger, according to Planned Parenthood. When Title X funding was cut off to Michigan Planned Parenthood between 2019 and 2021, the number of people seeking preventative care at its locations dropped 75%, Phenicie said. Although there are other health centers that can pay for visits using Title X funds, they could not absorb the patients Planned Parenthood could no longer see, she added. In the month leading up to this year's closures, Planned Parenthood Michigan kept the four closing clinics open to honor all the appointments that had already been made, and spent hours trying to help patients line up care at other clinics or through telehealth with Planned Parenthood. 'Even if they would like to continue care, if they can't be covered under Title X and they can't use Medicaid, their options will be limited,' Phenicie said. This article was originally published on
NBC News
06-06-2025
- Health
- NBC News
Planned Parenthood provides basic health care. If they close, where will many women go?
When the Trump administration suddenly froze federal funding to more than 100 Planned Parenthood clinics this spring, the organization's Michigan branch was already deep into hard discussions about its finances. 'The leadership team and our board had been scenario planning for months to try to fill those gaps to see how we could continue providing care,' said Ashlea Phenicie, chief external affairs officer of Planned Parenthood of Michigan. The only option was clear. Michigan's 14 Planned Parenthood clinics serve tens of thousands of women. In order to save clinics around the state that were either busier or in places where women had few other options, the team would have to close multiple clinics, including the only one in the state's Upper Peninsula, a large, isolated and mostly rural area surrounded by a stretch of Lake Michigan. In Ann Arbor, home of Michigan State University, the city's two clinics would be combined. It's a reality playing out across the country. At least 20 Planned Parenthood clinics have closed or will close within the year. For decades, the health care organization has been squeezed by the same pressures choking nearly all U.S. providers –– low insurance reimbursement rates, blocked Medicaid expansion, understaffing and rising costs of providing medical care that have forced hospitals and health clinic closures throughout the country. Uniquely, Planned Parenthood, a nonprofit that serves more than 2 million patients nationwide every year, many of them uninsured, underinsured or who qualify for Medicaid, has also become the target of pointed funding cuts that started under the first Trump administration. 'What is different this time around is that it's much more sweeping. It's a deeper and broader cut that will affect both more clinics and more people,' said Farzana Kapadia, a professor of epidemiology and population health at the New York University School of Global Public Health. In March, the Trump administration withheld funding by excluding many Planned Parenthood clinics from the Title X family planning program, a federal grant program that funds family planning and reproductive health care. Then, in late May, House Republicans delivered another enormous blow, voting to end funding for Planned Parenthood as part of the reconciliation bill. Federal law already restricts federal funds from being used for abortion, except in cases of incest, rape or if a mother's life is in danger, through a law called the Hyde Amendment. But if passed, the reconciliation bill would cut off Medicaid reimbursement to any nonprofit that primarily offers family planning or reproductive health services, provides abortions beyond the Hyde Amendment exceptions and received more than $1 million in Medicaid reimbursements in 2024. As a nationwide organization, Planned Parenthood does all three. If the bill passes in the Senate, it would block Planned Parenthood clinics from billing Medicaid for any health services at all, including cancer screenings, wellness exams and birth control. It's unclear if the new legislation would apply to Planned Parenthood nationally or on a state-by-state basis. Over half of Planned Parenthood patients are covered by publicly funded health programs like Medicaid and in 2023, about 36% of all Title X services were provided by Planned Parenthood clinics. Eliminating these sources of funding would cut hundreds of millions of dollars from Planned Parenthood's care costs every year. Targeting federal funding for any type of care for Planned Parenthood clinics is a way opponents of abortion rights can attempt to shut down clinics that do provide abortion, even if they also offer other care. Phenicie said Republican lawmakers appear to understand that cutting off Planned Parenthood from Title X and Medicaid reimbursement will put the clinics that perform abortion in peril, even if these funds can't cover the procedures. The slashed funds could affect all Planned Parenthood clinics whether they offer abortion services or not. 'They know so much of our patient base is on Medicaid or needs Title X to pay for their care, they know that cutting this off will allow them to cut off access to abortion and they are willing to make that trade,' she said. Before the cuts, Planned Parenthood was already operating on thin margins. Now, clinics are struggling to operate at a loss. 'The numbers are so devastating that there are really no options other than closing some centers and consolidating others, and then investing in our virtual health centers that can serve people across the state,' Phenicie said. Clinics provide basic health care At least 1 in 3 women say they have gone to a Planned Parenthood clinic for care, as well as 1 in 10 men, according to a recent KFF Health poll. Nearly half of Black women have gone to a Planned Parenthood clinic, the poll found. Abortions, the main reason the Trump administration has ended support for the clinics, account for just 4% of the services Planned Parenthood provides, according to a 2024 annual report. The vast majority of Planned Parenthood's services involve basic health care for women, including diagnosing and treating urinary tract and yeast infections and screening for cervical cancer and breast cancer. Some locations offer vaccination against HPV, hepatitis B, Covid and influenza. More than half of care is related to testing for sexually transmitted infections and treatment. Another 25% is providing access to contraception, often at low or no cost. Cancer screenings and other non-abortion services make up 18%, the report showed. Those important medical services haven't swayed opponents of the clinics. In January, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., introduced a bill that sought to ban Planned Parenthood from federal funding in the same ways the federal reconciliation bill would. The bill is called the Defund Planned Parenthood Act. 'My commitment to protecting life isn't just personal, it's rooted in both science and principle. Life begins at conception, and I've spent my time in the Senate fighting to protect the right to life,' Paul said in a press release. Closing in states that support abortion rights About 40% of Planned Parenthood's funding comes from government health care reimbursements and grants. Many locations offer a sliding scale payment option for people who can't afford health care. That money comes, in part, from government programs that are now being cut. 'Cutting this funding is really about cutting access to care for people who are not insured or who are underinsured to allow for tax breaks for people who can afford their medical care,' NYU's Kapadia said. Wendy Stark, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Greater New York, said that even when a patient has private insurance, 'the reimbursement rates are just not meeting the costs of primary care. 'The U.S. health care system pays a tiny amount of health care dollars into primary and preventative care,' Stark said. 'We are sitting in a micro version of that.' Earlier this year, Planned Parenthood announced it was selling the building that housed its only Manhattan location. Planned Parenthood locations are also shuttering throughout the Midwest and in other states that have historically voted in favor of abortion rights, including Vermont. In late May, Planned Parenthood announced it will close four clinics in Minnesota within a year. The state was the first to codify the right to abortion into law after the Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade, but only one of the closing clinics performed abortions. Four of the six Planned Parenthood clinics in Iowa, including one in Ames, where Iowa State University is located, will also be shuttered. Four Illinois clinics, none which performed abortions, stopped operating in March. In April, three locations closed and two were consolidated in Michigan, where the right to abortion is enshrined into state law. Two Utah locations closed in May after losing a significant amount of funding as a result of the Title X freeze. 'We are subsidizing almost every visit we do, even with insurance,' Stark said. 'We also have a great deal of our patients who come who do not have insurance.' The decision to sell the Manhattan clinic was a strategic but difficult decision, she said. The revenue from the sale could help keep other clinics in the state operating. Both the patients and staff of the Manhattan clinic can be absorbed by Planned Parenthood's other New York City locations, which can minimize the impact the closure will have. 'When we consolidate in certain locations, we look at the whole area. Can we funnel patients to our next closest health center, are there other clinics that patients can be sent to?' Stark said, adding that this is more difficult to do in rural areas that already have extremely minimal health care options. 'If we face further erosion of our finances, we will have to make more hard decisions,' she said. Straining a fragile health care system Several state-level laws banned Planned Parenthood from receiving Title X funds in the decade preceding the sweeping federal exclusions. Robin Marty, the executive director of WAWC Healthcare, formerly West Alabama Women's Center, in Tuscaloosa, said these states can provide a picture of what health care may look like in states that have more recently faced Planned Parenthood closures. 'We exist as kind of a lesson to people of what resources are like if there is not a Planned Parenthood,' she said. Planned Parenthood operates just one brick-and-mortar clinic in Alabama, in Birmingham, but offers telehealth throughout the state. There are just two in Louisiana and one in the Florida Panhandle. There are no physical clinics in Mississippi, which has the highest teen birth rate in the nation. Alabama and Louisiana rank in the top seven, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. Mississippi also has the highest maternal mortality rate. Louisiana comes in second. Alabama is fourth. 'There aren't places for people to go for free birth control or STI screenings or maternal care,' she said, referring to sexually transmitted infections. WAWC Healthcare is one of the only providers in Alabama, outside of federally qualified health centers, which are run by states or counties, that does. Already, Marty said, the clinic relies heavily on nongovernmental grants in the absence of access to Title X, though the clinic does accept Medicaid. 'Every time I apply for a grant, I know I have only about a 10% chance of getting it, but I do it anyway because that's the only way my patients can get care,' she said. Other than grants, 'we rely on donors who each donate about $50 each time we contact them.' Marty said other clinics that provide some of the same services as Planned Parenthood, which are already operating on razor-thin margins, if not at a loss, will be further strained by closures. This strain will be passed onto patients. 'You are talking about individuals who are living at or below the poverty level who already can't afford health care on their own and then you are eliminating a major source of their health care,' Kapadia said. The GOP megabill, which blocks Planned Parenthood from being reimbursed with Medicaid dollars, among other Medicaid cuts, is awaiting its fate in the Senate this week. For now, Title X funding is frozen for Planned Parenthoods in 20 states. If the 'Big Beautiful Bill' passes, another 200 of the roughly 600 Planned Parenthoods will be in danger, according to Planned Parenthood. When Title X funding was cut off to Michigan Planned Parenthood between 2019 and 2021, the number of people seeking preventative care at its locations dropped 75%, Phenicie said. Although there are other health centers that can pay for visits using Title X funds, they could not absorb the patients Planned Parenthood could no longer see, she added. In the month leading up to this year's closures, Planned Parenthood Michigan kept the four closing clinics open to honor all the appointments that had already been made, and spent hours trying to help patients line up care at other clinics or through telehealth with Planned Parenthood. 'Even if they would like to continue care, if they can't be covered under Title X and they can't use Medicaid, their options will be limited,' Phenicie said.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Court strikes down Michigan's 24-hour waiting period for abortions
A sign at the Michigan Pride rally in Lansing on June 26, 2022. | Photo by Laina G. Stebbins Michigan's mandatory 24-hour waiting period for receiving abortions has been struck down after a Michigan Court of Claims judge determined Tuesday that the rule was unconstitutional. Michigan voters enshrined the right to an abortion and 'reproductive freedom for all' into the state constitution in the November 2022 election through a ballot measure. In February 2024, abortion rights groups filed a lawsuit challenging several of Michigan's provisions around abortion access, asserting that they work against Michiganders' new constitutional rights. In addition to the mandatory 24-hour waiting period, Michigan Court of Claims Judge Sima Patel struck down requirements surrounding mandatory counseling that required abortion providers to provide an image of a fetus to patients receiving abortions. Another stricken rule had barred nurse practitioners, certified nurse midwives and physician assistants from performing abortions However, Patel upheld a rule that requires abortion providers to screen for signs of coercion, saying the rule does not violate the constitutional right to reproductive health care. Michigan voters OK abortion, voting rights and term limits proposals 'The interest to be protected in this case is the fundamental right to reproductive freedom. The Court has deemed the majority of the provisions in the challenged laws to unconstitutionally burden and infringe upon that right,' Patel wrote in her opinion Tuesday. Striking down the 24-hour waiting period has been a top priority for abortion access advocates, as Planned Parenthood of Michigan reported in 2023, when lawmakers were considering a repeal, that the rule causes around 150 patients to cancel their appointments each month due to difficulty scheduling with work, transportation or other reasons. Plaintiffs arguing for the repeal in the case argued that the waiting period does nothing to promote patient health or protect against coercion into getting an abortion. Instead, proponents for the repeal argued that the waiting period works to ensure it becomes more difficult, logistically and medically, to receive quality abortion care earlier in a pregnancy. '…the Court finds that the mandatory 24-hour waiting period burdens and infringes upon patients' rights to reproductive freedom,' Patel wrote in her opinion Tuesday. 'The mandatory delay exacerbates the burdens that patients experience seeking abortion care, including by increasing costs, prolonging wait times, increasing the risk that a patient will have to disclose their decision to others, and potentially forcing the patient to forgo a medication abortion for a more invasive procedure.' Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, a staunch supporter of abortion rights, has long supported eliminating the state's waiting period placed on abortions, saying in a statement Tuesday that the court's decision recognizes the struck down provisions as burdensome and obstructive to abortion care. 'This ruling affirms what Michiganders made clear when they voted to enshrine a fundamental right to reproductive freedom in our state constitution: that deeply personal medical decisions belong to individuals and their providers,' Nessel said. 'I will continue fighting to defend reproductive freedoms and protect bodily autonomy for Michigan residents.' Meanwhile, Right to Life of Michigan President Amber Roseboom said in a statement that the court's decision endangers womens' ability to make informed and safe medical decisions for themselves. 'Abortion is the only medical procedure of its kind in which the patient now is expected to go in blind,' Roseboom said in a statement. 'There is no question that women are at greater risk when they enter an abortion clinic in Michigan today than they were even a few years ago.' Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who championed the effort to remove the barriers, said the ruling 'reaffirms that Michigan is a state where you can make your own decisions about your own body with a trusted health care provider, without political interference.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
05-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Michigan Planned Parenthood impacted by Trump federal cuts, closing 3 centers
The Brief Planned Parenthood of Michigan is losing 3 centers due to federal cuts by the Trump Administration. Although abortion rights are enshrined in the state constitution, affordability and accessibility could become harder. Ten brick and mortar Planned Parenthood centers remain with one virtual, as well. FOX 2 - It was 2022 when Michigan voted to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution, passing it overwhelmingly. Planned Parenthood of Michigan was a driving force in that effort - but three years later they say they are being forced to restructure after funding cuts from the Trump Administration. Local perspective "The ballot measure protects the rights, but not necessarily the affordability or the accessibility," said Paula Thornton Greear, Planned Parenthood of Michigan. Greear, the president and CEO, announced the consolidation of the two Ann Arbor health centers and the closure of three others - in Jackson, Petoskey and Marquette. That leaves 10 brick and mortar centers statewide plus a virtual one. "A lot of people have reached out to me, and they are angry and they are hurt," she said. "And you know what - we are too." Thornton Greear says the clinic closures are a result of the Trump Administration defunding organizations from Title 10 - threats to Medicaid and the Comstock Act. "They are trying to do everything to defund Planned Parenthood and take away people's bodily autonomy," she said. Planned Parenthood says it is fighting back - expanding Telehealth services to seven days a week - expanding their hours and patient navigators - because nearly 60,000 patients a year depend on it. "Planned Parenthood will never back down," Thornton Greear said. "We will always fight and find a way to make sure that people have access to the healthcare that they need." The Source Information for this report came from an interview with the Planned Parenthood of Michigan president and CEO.
