Whitmer vetoes more than $16M in anti-abortion funding in Michigan budget

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer vetoed more than $16 million from the new state budget that some said promoted alternatives to abortion but she determined did not support reproductive rights. 

During an event in Lansing, the governor said the proposals "would have used state funding to pursue an anti-abortion political agenda.”

The money is a very small portion of the nearly $70 billion budget she signed into law Wednesday, but GOP-led attempts to allocate the funding and the governor's veto represent a broader battle over abortion access. 

"The vetoes in SB 82 and HB 4400 relate to funding that would be targeted to programs or organizations that purportedly focus on maternal health, but in reality do not fully support reproductive health and choice," Whitmer spokesman Bobby Leddy said. 

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The governor has line-item veto authority on budget bills. That means she can strike specific funding but sign the broader bill into law. 

The vetoed provisions include: 

• $10 million "to fund marketing programs that promote the adoption of infants and to develop factual educational information materials on adoption as an alternative to abortion, including the ability of the birth mother to establish a pre-birth plan."
• $3 million to create a "maternal navigator pilot program" within nonprofits that promote alternatives to abortion.
• $1.5 million for "pregnancy resource centers" that promote alternatives to abortion. 
• $1 million for pregnant and parenting services at colleges and universities. The funding was contingent on the entity not providing referrals for abortions. 
• $700,000  for "pregnancy and parenting support services program, which must promote childbirth, alternatives to abortion, and grief counseling."  
• $50,000 for the health department to inform the public that it does not use taxpayer dollars to fund any "elective abortion." 

Nicole Wells, executive director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Michigan, thanked the governor for striking this funding from the budget. 

“In vetoing the blatantly anti-abortion provisions inserted by legislative Republicans, Governor Whitmer put people before politics and demonstrated her commitment to protecting access to safe, legal abortion in Michigan," Wells said in a statement.

"Everyone deserves to make their own medical decisions free from interference from certain politicians."

Michigan Right to Life, an anti-abortion rights organization, had heralded these provisions in the budget. On Wednesday, legislative director Genevieve Marnon said the move was disappointing but not a surprise. 

"It is very disappointing that the governor is unwilling to help women in crisis pregnancies who are looking for assistance to carry her cq child to term," Marnon said. 

"In addition, with 29,669 abortions occurring in the state last year and only a few hundred infant adoptions, it is again very disappointing that she is unwilling to help advertise and encourage this life-giving and family-building alternative to abortion."

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Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to prevent the enactment of a new Texas law that broadly restricts abortions. The law bans any abortions after six weeks' gestation, a measure that seemingly does not comport with nearly 50 years of legal abortion access afforded under the court's Roe v. Wade decision. 

But five of the nine justices decided not to rule in the Texas case on procedural grounds. While they noted it was not a decision as to the constitutionality of abortion, abortion rights advocates took their order as foreshadowing a broader dismantling of Roe. 

In Michigan, a 1931 state law makes it a felony for anyone to provide an abortion unless "necessary to preserve the life of such woman." If Roe  were overturned, this law would again take effect. 

Whitmer, Attorney General Dana Nessel and other Democrats have advocated for lawmakers to repeal the law. But there's little chance of that happening in the GOP-led Legislature. 

In 2020, nearly 30,000 abortions were performed in Michigan. The 29,669 induced abortions represent an 8.5% increase over 2019 and are the most in any year since 1996, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. 

However, it's still almost 40% fewer than the 49,098 abortions recorded in 1987, the year with the most abortions recorded in the state.

Contact Dave Boucher at dboucher@freepress.com or 313-938-4591. Follow him on Twitter @Dave_Boucher1.