Will Michigan Governor End State Funding for Anti-Choice Clinic Network?

By: Dennis Carter, Rewire.News, January 14, 2019

A watchdog group on Monday called on Michigan’s new Democratic governor to take action to investigate and terminate a contract with an anti-choice organization accused by the group of misallocating state funds and prioritizing taxpayer money for pay hikes for top executives.

Real Alternatives, a network for so-called crisis pregnancy centers has reaped millions of taxpayer funds from Republican-controlled legislatures and GOP governors. The funds include nearly $2.6 million from Michigan over the past five years to run the Michigan Parenting and Pregnancy Support Program, which it received while failing to provide health services to pregnant people, according to the Campaign for Accountability, a nonprofit group focused on public accountability. In a letter released Monday, the Campaign for Accountability asked Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) and other Michigan officials to “investigate and terminate the state’s contract with Real Alternatives.”

Not only does Real Alternatives use taxpayer funds in support of anti-choice pregnancy clinics that seek to dissuade people from seeking abortion care, but it has time and again failed to meet goals for service, according to a complaint the Campaign for Accountability filed Monday. Real Alternatives, after pledging to administer 8,000 visits and serve 2,000 people in Michigan in its first year of operation, “only managed to oversee a mere 785 visits and serve only 403 women,” per the complaint.  In over four and a half years, Real Alternatives has only provided service for 3,771 pregnant people, according to the Campaign for Accountability.

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