(RoyalPatriot.com )- Michigan Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer has vetoed a $20 million package in her state’s budget that was set to go toward what she’s calling “fake health clinics.”
The governor signed the state’s full $76 billion budget for next fiscal year this week, with support for the workforce, public safety, public health and the economy. However, she threw away a line item that would have provided funding for pro-life issues that were put into the budget by Republicans — who have control of both of the state Legislature’s chambers.
The money was supposed to support adoption campaigns and expecting mothers, through pro-life pregnancy centers. Those centers have become the target of many pro-abortion people, though, ever since the Supreme Court took away federal protections for abortion by overturning Roe v. Wade.
In the full package was $10 million that would’ve gone to fund marketing that would’ve promoted adoption instead of abortion, another $3 million given to organizations that could then promote “childbirth and alternatives to abortion,” as well as another $100,000 to legally defend a current ban on giving gender reassignment therapies or surgeries for people who are in a state prison.
Whitmer explained her reasoning for issuing the line-item veto for that funding through a statement given by Bobby Leddy, a spokesman for her. He said:
“Governor Whitmer has been clear that women and qualified medical providers should be making health care decisions — not politicians. While politicians in other states rush to ban abortion, even in instances of rape or incest, Michigan must remain a place where a woman’s ability to make her own medical decisions with her trusted health care provider is respected.”
He added:
“[Whitmer] cannot support aspects of a bill that sends millions in taxpayer dollars to fake health centers that intentionally withhold information from women about their health, bodies and full reproductive freedom. … [They] often use deceptive advertising that target young women and women with low incomes who are seeking abortion care, painting themselves as comprehensive, licensed health care clinics that provide all options, and then lie to women about medical facts.”
Republicans on the other side of the argument, though, say that Whitmer is only pandering to a singular viewpoint. In a statement, the Republican chair of the state’s House Appropriations Committee, Representative Thomas Albert, said that rejecting that funding for pro-life issues “support(s) only one option for women in a crisis pregnancy — the deadly choice of abortion.”
His statement continued:
“It is shocking that the governor, and her far-left political base, are now so extreme that helping pregnant women who might consider adoption instead is now a bridge too far. As good as this budget is, it should have been even better.
“Whitmer inexplicably rejected more than $20 million to promote adoption and help women facing a crisis pregnancy. To be clear — this funding was not about access to abortion. It’s about helping women in need and actually sustaining life, and I am profoundly disappointed that the governor would veto this assistance
