News Release: Whitmer’s Budget Vetoes Show Abortion Extremism Has Taken Hold in Michigan

(Lansing, Mich.) — According to media reports, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is expected to line-item veto several policies from the state of Michigan Fiscal Year 2023 budget that allocate over $20 million to assist pregnant women in need, to promote adoption as an alternative to abortion, and to support pregnancy centers that help women who choose to carry their children to term. Together with some $16 million vetoed from last year’s budget for similar policies, the governor over two years will now have eliminated over $36 million that would otherwise have benefitted pregnant women who choose life for their babies. Michigan Catholic Conference Policy Advocate Rebecca Mastee, J.D., offers the following comments:

“Although terribly unfortunate, it is not unexpected that the governor would, again, take the extreme position of vetoing funding to help pregnant women in crisis. Vetoing this funding alienates tens of thousands of women and families who receive assistance from non-profit pregnancy resource centers each year. By eliminating these helping hands for women who want to have their babies, the Governor is, in effect, taking away their ‘choice’ — the choice for childbirth. These vetoes — along with some $16 million vetoed from last year’s budget that sought to help women in need — clarify that pro-abortion advocates have fully committed to push abortion extremism on our state over the well-being of women in need.”

The spending programs expected to be vetoed by the governor, all of which were strongly supported by Michigan Catholic Conference, include:

• $10 million to promote adoption programs in the state;
• $4 million for grants to assist pregnant women who lack a safe home;
• $3 million for the maternal navigator program that promotes childbirth and alternatives to abortion;
• $2 million for a tax credit for parents who choose adoption;
• $1.5 million for grants to pregnancy resource centers to provide services to women who carry her child to term;
• $700,000 for the Parenting and Pregnancy Services program to assist pregnant women and those in crisis pregnancies with support toward childbirth; and
• $50,000 to develop materials to inform medical care providers that the Department of Health and Human Services will not use state dollars to fund abortion.

Michigan Catholic Conference is the official public policy voice of the Catholic Church in this state.

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