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Opinion | What Michigan Is About to Lose
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Michigan has spent years, across administrations and legislatures, building something worth protecting. Yet we do not fully understand what we are about to lose.
As someone who has served in the state Legislature and in Congress and worked through difficult budget and policy decisions, I know the difference between a truly constrained environment and a preventable loss.
Planned Parenthood of Michigan is currently the largest Title X provider in the state and a leading deliverer of sexual and reproductive health care. More than 30,000 Michiganders rely on its Title X-funded services every year for birth control, cancer screenings that detect disease early, STI testing and treatment and other essential preventive care that keeps people healthy and out of emergency rooms.
Planned Parenthood of Michigan is often the only accessible provider, particularly for people with low incomes, in rural communities, in medically underserved areas, and LGBTQ Michiganders who have found in Planned Parenthood of Michigan a trusted and affirming place to receive care.
The federal government under President Trump has made its position clear. Already, providers like Planned Parenthood of Michigan have been excluded from Medicaid reimbursement. Federal Title X funding is no longer stable or reliable, and the loss of federal support has created a significant and growing funding gap. A federal gag rule and additional restrictions remain likely. The combined impact represents a $7 million to $8 million structural deficit for an organization that has already closed health centers, reduced its workforce, and stretched every dollar to keep serving patients through this crisis.
These are not discretionary funds. They are reimbursements for care already delivered to patients who could not otherwise afford it. When these funds disappear, the ability to provide that care disappears with them. Philanthropic support is not optional; it is essential to our operations. But even with the generosity of our donors, no amount of private giving can replace government reimbursement at this scale. No donor base can substitute for the systematic defunding of a public health infrastructure.
When health care infrastructure disappears from communities, it does not come back quickly or easily, and the people who suffer most are those who were already facing the greatest barriers to care.
Michigan has been a national leader in reproductive health access. Governor Whitmer and many in the Legislature have fought hard to build and protect that reputation. Michigan voters enshrined reproductive freedom in the state constitution, and the legislature passed landmark reproductive freedom legislation. Michigan joined the legal fight against federal defunding. These were not small things. They were acts of real political courage on behalf of people who count on us for care.
But political courage in the Legislature and the courts is only part of the story.
I have been in rooms where decisions like this get made, and I know they are possible when there is leadership willing to make them. In other states, leaders have already moved to stabilize funding for providers using administrative authority or legislative action. Michigan can do the same. The mechanisms are there, and the remaining question is whether leaders will act. These are the kinds of decisions that ultimately come down to priorities.
What is at stake is not abstract. It is whether tens of thousands of Michiganders will continue to have access to basic, preventive health care, including cancer screenings, birth control, and STI treatment, in the communities where they live.
If Planned Parenthood of Michigan is forced to close more health centers or scale back services further, that access does not simply shift elsewhere. It disappears, and the impact will be felt in missed cancer screenings, untreated infections, gaps in birth control access, and delayed care that leads to more serious and more costly health issues over time.
As the state moves through its budget process, time is not a luxury. The window to act is closing, and every week of delay has consequences for the patients who depend on this care.
We have built something worth protecting. Political will alone is not enough. If that action is not taken in this budget cycle, vital health care infrastructure will be lost, and it will not come back quickly or easily.
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