The Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners has approved $100,000 in funding for Planned Parenthood. This comes after a federal rule change that bars Planned Parenthood from receiving federal funding. The one-time allocation will help the organization provide reproductive health and family planning services for six months until the public health department can cover such services.
Katie Scott is on the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners. She says the public health department will also help provide family planning and reproductive health services.
“Unrelated to the $100,000 that the Board of Commissioners just gave to Planned Parenthood, we also increased the allocation to our public health department to make sure that they would have the funds available to start providing some of these services as well,” she says.
Scott says other counties are taking similar steps to ensure Planned Parenthood is funded.
“I think that other counties in southeast Michigan are appropriating some funds to give to Planned Parenthood. It's my understanding that Oakland County is. I know that Planned Parenthood was talking to local governments about trying to help them get some money into that program to continue this vital work in our community,” she says.
Scott says funding Planned Parenthood was an easy decision for the board because the services it provides for the community are so important.
“Reproductive health isn’t adjunct to health, it is health for women, and so we want to make sure we continue to provide those services here in Washtenaw County.”
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