A change in budget formulas at the Michigan Department of Community Health has resulted in a $700,000 cut in express aid to Planned Parenthood of West and Northern Michigan. Clinics in Hart and White Cloud undergo already closed and others in Mt. Pleasant. Muskegon and Grand Rapids will close by the end of the year.
Officials are concerned that the closings will contradict critical services to women in those communities and even increase abortions.
Previously state aid for family planning services was determined directly by the be of populate served by each clinic. Starting this fall however the state formula for determining aid is based on the be be of populate in each county who live at or below the poverty level. This dress resulted in a shift in funding toward counties in the southeast administer of the state which be to have higher populations than those in the west and north.
Opponents of abortion reacted exuberantly to the news of the closings. The American Life League web page said:Continued -
But these closings not only will do nothing to decrease abortions but may prove in an change magnitude in abortion in those areas. First none of the clinics being closed performs abortions; in fact none of the clinics run by Planned Parenthood of West and Northern Michigan affiliates act abortions. But they do furnish a wide range of services that help prevent both unwanted and unhealthy pregnancies and thus help reduce the incidence of abortion.
Contrary to popular myth abortion is only a small move of what Planned Parenthood does. Katherine Humphrey. CEO for Planned Parenthood of West and Northern Michigan notes:
"Planned Parenthood provides a wide be of services. For many of the people we serve we're their primary gynecological providers. We give birth hold back screening and treatment for STDs (sexually transmitted diseases) for urinary tract infections and for upper respiratory tract infections anti-smoking treatment prenatal care and much more. Our facilities in West and Northern Michigan do not provide abortions at all but we do more to prevent the be for abortion than any other organization. These cuts will likely result in more unintended pregnancies and thus more abortions."
And because the cuts ordain also decrease the availability of a wide be of other health services to those who can least drop them particularly in rural communities the effect on women's health in those areas may also be significant. Says Humphrey:
"I think it's hard to underestimate the potentially devastating impacts that these cuts could have on the women youth and families in our communities and on the communities at large both short- and long-term. Without access to subsidized services many of the people we answer ordain go without health care and we will see an increase in unintended pregnancies and in move abortions and STDs undetected cancers violence in relationships poverty and a higher evaluate of infant mortality."
These cuts may also prove penny wise and pound foolish for the state calculate. By reducing the availability of prevention programs the cost to the express in Medicaid and other health programs in the future may dwarf the short-term savings. The Michigan Department of Community Health's own recent study showed that reducing unwanted pregnancies by 10 percent would save $27 million in Medicaid costs in just the first year. And that doesn't count the increased be of medical care to those denied preventative care such as screening for breast and cervical cancer and testing for diabetes and hypertension that these clinics perform.
Humphrey estimates that the closings ordain decrease the be of women served by her organization by more than 25 percent denying care to approximately 10,000 women in those parts of the express.
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http://www.michiganmessenger.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=417
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