Lansing, MI — On September 22, the Michigan Legislature passed the 2022 state budget, which includes several new prolife provisions.
Right to Life of Michigan President Barbara Listing said, “Our prolife leadership in the Legislature understands the need to invest in pregnancy help as an alternative to abortion. We are pleased to see the follow-through from the budget chairs, Rep. Tom Albert and Sen. Jim Stamas, as well as subcommittee chairs Rep. Mary Whiteford, Rep. Mark Huizenga, Sen. Kim LaSata, and Sen. Rick Outman. We hope Governor Whitmer follows through on her end of the budget negotiations and signs all of these provisions into law.”
The budget allocates $10 million for promoting adoption as an alternative to abortion. $1.5 million would be available as grants to pregnancy resource centers that provide alternatives to abortions, and $700,000 to restore the Real Alternatives pregnancy help program, which Governor Whitmer line-item vetoed in the 2020 budget.
Listing said, “There are only a few hundred infant adoptions in Michigan every year and long waiting times for parents interested in adoption, yet sadly there were 29,669 reported abortions in Michigan in 2020. Abortion robs children from the opportunities to live their lives and opportunities for parents to complete their families. Prolife organizations operate more than 150 locations in Michigan to provide pregnancy and adoption help to make those opportunities a reality, and they deserve this support.”
$500,000 in the budget would finally fund the Pregnant and Parenting Student Services Act, which would help connect pregnant students on college campuses with resources so they can continue their education.
Listing said, “When she was a state representative, Gretchen Whitmer supported our Pregnant and Parenting Student Services Act. Though she vetoed funding for this needed program in 2020, we hope this time she remembers her past support.”
Previously existing language is included in this budget preventing state family planning funding from going to abortion providers and prioritizing federal family planning funding to be given to non-abortion providers.
Listing said, “Planned Parenthood is a billion-dollar megacorporation. They illegally received pandemic relief funding. There’s no reason Michigan county health departments should be deprived of funding so Planned Parenthood can add to their tens of millions in annual profits.”
The budget includes $100,000 for educational materials to the public and to higher education institutions about the constitutional limitations of human embryonic stem cell research. It includes a previously existing requirement of reporting from any universities that engage in the research.
Listing said, “Governor Gretchen Whitmer led the 2008 campaign to allow research that kills human embryos in Michigan. Her campaign promised cures to sick Michiganders and a biotechnology revolution. We’ve received no cures and no real economic benefits, just unanswered questions that deserve answers.”
The budget also requires that colleges and universities that mandate vaccines to allow medical, religious, and philosophical exemptions, and prohibits vaccine passports. Many prolife people have ethical objections to one or several of the coronavirus vaccines that use tissue taken from aborted babies in the development or production process.