By Elizabeth Ferszt
Contributing Writer
Planned Parenthood of Jackson will be closing its clinic at 2009 W. Michigan Ave. on April 25, due to an expected loss in funding due to Medicaid and Title X reductions.
The facility offered birth control, pregnancy testing, abortion services, and reproductive health for women and girls, the non-binary, and others who need urgent care.
Rev. Fr. Timothy Nelson, M.D. the pastor at St. Mary’s Star of Sea Catholic Church in Jackson, said in an email, “I would hope that all Planned Parenthood centers would end as that clinic did.”
Right to Life of Jackson President Kathy Potts said, “We celebrate the closing of Planned Parenthood because they are the #1 abortion provider in the county.” Potts added that people say that Planned Parenthood of Jackson did not directly provide abortions, “that’s wrong they did, the chemical kind [Mifepristone], up to 10 weeks.”
Another person, who is a social worker, but who wished to remain anonymous, stated “my 18-year-old daughter wanted to go through gender affirmation care” and had been in consultation with the University of Michigan Gender Transition Clinic for about two years when they told them the wait list for the program was about eight months. U of M told them to go to Planned Parenthood for immediate care.
Her child got a quick appointment at the Planned Parenthood Jackson location and within 10 minutes of being seen for the first time, they had received testosterone treatment (a cream or lotion that absorbs slowly through the skin), according to the mother. She feels they rushed a huge decision and were cavalier about it. Planned Parenthood did not ask for the daughter’s medical or psychological records and did not consult the U of M clinic. “I’m happy to see Planned Parenthood go,” she said. The mother also stated that there are many other local facilities that provide most of the same services such as birth control, prescriptions, pelvic exams, and cancer screening for low-income patients; for example, the Center for Family Health and the Jackson County Health Department.
Planned Parenthood will permanently close the Jackson location, as well as two other clinics, one in Petosky and one in Marquette, by April 25-30. Tele-med or virtual appointments can still be made online at their website, seven days a week. Planned Parenthood is also consolidating its two Ann Arbor clinics into one, at the Power Family Health Center, 3100 Professional Drive; this reorganization and closure will also result in a staffing reduction of 10%.
Long being the target of lawsuits and other legal woes, Planned Parenthood was told last week by the Trump administration that their Title X funding would be withheld effective April 1, based on alleged violations of the president’s previous executive order banning DEI in federal programming. Title X is a broad program covering funding for health care services for low-income persons. This funding also subsidizes abortion care.
Title X funding refers to “the only federal program dedicated to providing comprehensive family planning to low-income individuals, particularly those who do not have insurance or who are underinsured,” according to the Guttmacher Institute, an entity that researches abortion data and advocates for reproductive rights. Title X is administered out of the federal Office of Population Affairs, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services.
According to the institute, the U.S. Supreme Court recently heard oral arguments in a new abortion case that challenges use of federal funding for patients covered by Medicaid, for services at Planned Parenthood. On April 2, SCOTUS heard the case out of South Carolina, Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, that seems to turn on the issue of patient rights to choose the health care provider of their choice, just as those in private insurance can.
Since the Dobbs decision (SCOTUS, 2022, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health), the basic protections of Roe v. Wade (SCOTUS, 1973), that abortion was legal over the entire U.S. – were overturned in favor of a state’s prerogative system, “permitting state governments to limit or even ban abortion care…resulting in the share of patients who cross state lines for abortion care to double, from 1 in 10, to 1 in 5,” according to Wendy Sawyer for the Prison Policy Initiative.
“They [the Trump administration] are trying to defund Planned Parenthood and take away people’s bodily autonomy,” President and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Michigan, Paula Thornton Greer, said in an interview with Fox 2 News Detroit on April 5.
The Morning Star has tried several times to contact the Jackson office of Planned Parenthood but did not hear back by press time.