Dem Lawmakers Say Whitmer Could Have Prevented Planned Parenthood Closures

(Source: MIRS.news, Published 07/31/2026) Democrats are accusing Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of failing to pursue an administrative option that they contend could have provided emergency funding for Planned Parenthood, although they have not publicly identified the appropriation that could have been used.

Reps. Laurie Pohutsky (D-Livonia) and Carrie Rheingans (D-Ann Arbor) said unused funding within the Department of Health and Human Services could have been redirected after Planned Parenthood warned in May that it needed a one-time infusion of $5 million.

MIRS has learned Planned Parenthood presented the administration with several possible approaches earlier this year after other states acted to replace lost federal reimbursements. Those states used different mechanisms, including agency funding, legislation and supplemental appropriations.

The possibilities discussed included accelerating federal funding, using prior-year Title X money or identifying an available state appropriation, according to people familiar with the discussions. Supporters viewed those approaches as alternatives to seeking a new appropriation from the Republican-controlled House.

“There were lapsed funds or unused funds that could have been redirected,” Pohutsky said. “That way, it wouldn't have taken funding from anything else where those funds were needed or in the process of being used.”

The governor's office laid the blame for Planned Parenthood not getting the funding needed to keep its Livonia, Lansing and Warren health centers open squarely at the feet of President Donald TRUMP and congressional Republican leaders.

“Republicans in Washington should be ashamed of themselves for putting women’s lives at risk," she wrote.

For its part, Planned Parenthood also blamed Republicans in its press release announcing the closures, writing, "Republicans in Congress have now demonstrated that they are willing to block Medicaid reimbursement for Planned Parenthood patients, and the Trump administration has proposed eliminating the Title X family planning program altogether. We cannot build the future of patient care on federal funding that can be stripped away whenever political power changes hands.” 

Whitmer’s office did not answer whether MDHHS had an appropriation with sufficient unused money and authorization broad enough to fund the requested services.

Bob Schneider, senior research associate with the Citizens Research Council of Michigan, said funding a Planned Parenthood contract through an existing MDHHS appropriation was theoretically possible, but only under specific conditions.

An existing line item or authorized work project would need to have both unused funding and a purpose consistent with the services Planned Parenthood intended to provide.

“If there was money that wasn’t going to be spent, then they could theoretically pay for Planned Parenthood services out of a line item that was consistent with that,” Schneider said.

He said the administration could not legally take unused money intended for an unrelated program and redirect it to Planned Parenthood.

“There has to be a line and there has to be room in that line,” Schneider said. “Both those things would have to be true.”

Schneider said he could not confirm whether such a funding source existed.

“It’s not a slam dunk,” he said. “It’s not obvious to me that they would have a place to sort of squeeze the contract in, but it’s theoretically possible.”

Michigan’s formal administrative transfer process does not give the governor unlimited authority to redirect unspent appropriations, and legislative appropriations committees have authority over transfers between individual line items.

Pohutsky said people with appropriations experience had identified possible sources and brought them to the governor’s office, although she could not name the specific funds.

“I am not on Appropriations, so that's like the extent of the information that I have about it,” Pohutsky said. “But yes, I know that there had been people with appropriations experience who were concerned about it, who had identified some possible sources to her office.”

MIRS asked whether she could identify those individuals or direct MIRS to someone who could explain the funding options in greater detail.

“I don't think that they would be willing to talk,” Pohutsky said. “I think that they're leaving the grenade throwing to me.”

But Pohutsky asserted that Whitmer had used similar budget authority previously, although she did not provide MIRS with a specific example.

“I believe at one point she had made a comment that it could have possibly resulted in litigation,” Pohutsky said. “So it's all a matter of, if she had wanted to, she would have because she has before.”

Rheingans described the proposed mechanism as an “administrative transfer,” which she said could allow unspent departmental funding to be used for a related purpose.

“But you know the Governor chose to lapse unspent funds in order to play Matt Hall's game of finding ghost employees to fire, so that it could look like we could be cutting stuff in the budget,” Rheingans said.

Rheingans said she believes this decision is a part of Whitmer’s broader attempt to cooperate with Hall and President Donald Trump’s administration in hopes of securing later wins for Michigan elsewhere, which she sees as a misguided strategy.

“So I think she’s doing what she’s always done because that worked previously, but it does not work with this kind of authoritarian takeover," Rheingans said. “But the rules have changed in the second Trump administration, and poor Governor Whitmer has not caught up yet.”

Former Michigan Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer also blamed Whitmer in a post on X, as seen below.

Progress Michigan Executive Director Justin Mendoza similarly said blame belonged to both Republicans and the Whitmer administration.

“While Republican lawmakers have always led the way in the fight against reproductive freedom, some of the blame for this crisis belongs to the Whitmer administration,” Mendoza said. “This May, Governor Whitmer declined to use her executive power to provide emergency funding for Planned Parenthood, going against the will of the public.”