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Press Release
ICYMI: Reproductive Freedom for All Director of Michigan Campaigns Condemns Rep. Barrett’s Vote to Cut Medicaid and Defund Planned Parenthood
For Immediate Release: Monday, June 2, 2025
Contact: [email protected]
ICYMI: Reproductive Freedom for All Director of Michigan Campaigns Condemns Rep. Barrett’s Vote to Cut Medicaid and Defund Planned Parenthood
City Pulse Lansing: “It’s time for Tom Barrett to put the Michigan parents and families that elected him over the interests of billionaires”
Lansing, MI – Over the weekend, Reproductive Freedom for All’s Director of Michigan Campaigns, Shanay Watson-Whittaker, directly called out Rep. Tom Barrett for being one of the deciding votes to defund Planned Parenthood and cut $880 billion in Medicaid funding, leaving millions of Michiganders without access to care.
Read more below:
City Pulse Lansing: Tell Barrett to reverse his vote to defund Planned Parenthood and gut Medicaid
By: Shanay Watson-Whittaker
- Two weeks ago, House Republicans, including Michigan’s very own Rep. Tom Barrett, voted to defund Planned Parenthood and take away health care from millions of Americans by gutting Medicaid.
- The bill, which is being celebrated by President Trump, would force 13.7 million people off their health care coverage. It would also close 200 Planned Parenthood clinics nationwide. Some of those clinics could be in Michigan.
- Michigan can’t afford losing health care providers. We already saw two health clinics shutter after Trump suddenly announced that he was taking away federal funding from reproductive health care clinics nationwide. That included a clinic in the Upper Peninsula, where patients now have to drive for five hours to get to the closest Planned Parenthood.
- But now Republicans like Barrett, R-Charlotte, want to go even further. The budget he supports isn’t about helping Americans. It’s about shutting down Planned Parenthood and taking away our health care — all so that they can pay for tax cuts for billionaires.
- Nothing about this is worth celebrating, and Republicans know it, too. That’s why Barrett has been refusing to meet with his outraged constituents. He can’t bear to look into the faces of the people he’s taking essential, life-saving health care away from.
- He knows that we’re right to be angry. Because this wildly unpopular budget would devastate our families and communities—particularly pregnant women and their families.
- In Michigan, 45% of all births are paid for by Medicaid. Approximately 12% of births covered by Medicaid are preterm, and studies show that states with robust Medicaid programs also see lower maternal mortality rates, especially for Black women.
- Put simply, Medicaid saves lives. And Planned Parenthood is just as important: One in three women have been to a Planned Parenthood for services like birth control, cancer screenings and STI treatment and testing.
- We need more health care options, not fewer. This bill would eliminate the few options that remain, especially in rural areas. Nearly half of Michigan’s rural hospitals are running in the red, and Medicaid cuts could drive these hospitals to close.
- It’s unconscionable that Republicans are fighting for this budget. Medicaid is our nation’s health care safety net and Planned Parenthood delivers high-quality reproductive health care. These programs need to be protected — not put on the chopping block.
- But Barrett voted to do exactly that. And instead of facing voters, he’s resorted to hiding and lying.
- He doesn’t have the nerve to meet with his constituents, but he had the nerve to post on social media that the budget he supports is “pro-family.” That’s a laughable lie. This budget would take away services that families rely on at a time when so many are struggling to make ends meet.
- Barrett and his Republican colleagues have pointed to small tax provisions as evidence that their bill will help Americans. But don’t be fooled. These are minor tweaks that change nothing about the fact that this bill will fundamentally change our lives for the worse.
- The good news is that we still have a chance to reverse course. This bill will move to the Senate next and will likely head back to the House for a final vote.
- That means we can still stop this disastrous bill in its tracks by demanding that Barrett answer to us — not the ultra-wealthy. It’s time for Tom Barrett to put the Michigan parents and families that elected him over the interests of billionaires.
- It’s going to take a lot of work, but we still have a chance to reverse course. That’s exactly why we need to keep calling and writing to Barrett. He needs to hear the voices of those who would suffer from this cruel bill.
- If Barrett really wants to do right by Michigan voters and families, he must reject this terrible bill. There’s still a chance for him to protect our health care before it’s gone.
- And if he doesn’t? Then he’ll finally have to face his constituents when they vote him out of office next November.
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For over 50 years, Reproductive Freedom for All (formerly NARAL Pro-Choice America) has fought to protect and advance reproductive freedom at the federal and state levels—including access to abortion care, birth control, pregnancy and post-partum care, and paid family leave—for everybody. Reproductive Freedom for All is powered by its more than 4 million members from every state and congressional district in the country, representing the 8 in 10 Americans who support legal abortion.
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