Oakland County approved $1.5 million for its health department to contract Planned Parenthood of Michigan, an effort to keep the only clinic in the county running through August 2028.
The County Commission approved the resolution allocating the money from its general fund on Thursday, Aug. 13. The decision followed hours of heated public comment opposing and in favor of taxpayer dollars going to Planned Parenthood.
Planned Parenthood of Michigan permanently closed its Lansing, Livonia and Warren locations in late July due to lack of funding, according to the organization. The closures come after Medicaid reimbursement on Planned Parenthood services was blocked for a year by the federal government and federal Planned Parenthood funding declined.
Oakland County Commissioners began considering Planned Parenthood funding for the Ferndale location in July. Oakland County previously allocated $500,000 to Planned Parenthood for the Ferndale clinic in 2019.
Ahead of the 11-6, near-party-line approval, Commission Chair David Woodward said the funds will provide service fee reimbursement, which he hopes will keep the Ferndale clinic open. Each eligible service will get a $206.53 reimbursement under the contract, consistent with the county-approved reimbursement methodology, according to the resolution.
"This is about health professionals and patients getting the care they need in a way that's responsible," Woodward said. "We're here in an emergency because ... a targeted effort to dismantle the social safety net that exists here is just fundamentally wrong and we have to ride out the storm."
Opposition to the funding
Commenters opposing the resolution stated personal, moral and religious opposition to abortion services provided by Planned Parenthood, as well as noted that affiliates of the nonprofit have donated millions of dollars to fund Democrats in recent elections.
Southfield Reformed Presbyterian Church Pastor Adam Kuehner said he came to speak for pro-life Oakland County residents. He said he's never voted for President Donald Trump and that the "Big Beautiful Bill" that cut healthcare funding "is more big than beautiful" and that he'd prefer local tax dollars spent on "other unifying causes," such as the fight against human trafficking.
"Please don't give $1.5 million to an organization that has spent far more than that on partisan political contributions," Kuehner said. "They don't need our money. This is not about cancer or STD screenings. Such rhetoric amounts to a smoke screening since all of these other services are available elsewhere."
Commissioner Christine Long said in addition to hearing dozens of public comments opposing the legislation on Thursday, she heard from numerous residents via phone and email ahead of the vote. Before voting no to the resolution, she asked to amend the resolution to include an audit of what the funds are being used for.
"I'm just wondering why we couldn't invest the $1.5 million into our own county services" to expand women's health services, she said.
Commissioner Kristen Nelson, the only Democrat who voted no, said she "cannot responsibly authorize $1.5 million before we've reviewed the final contract." She said for more than five months residents have been coming to the board asking for housing, food, and medical and legal assistance for immigrant families impacted by the Trump administration but that those requests have not been seen as urgent as the Planned Parenthood resolution.
"Chairman Woodward, you have repededly have called the action of the Trump administration a justification for this (Planned Parenthood) resolution we are about to vote on, yet when immigrants in our own backyards have asked this same board for help, in response to the same administration, that urgency has been absent," Nelson said. "If urgency mattered today, it should have mattered for the last five months."
Republican Commissioner Michael Spisz motioned to postpone the vote until more information was available about the specific needs of the clinic and where exactly the money will go.
"How am I as a commissioner able to make a decision when there's nothing in my packet that says this is why they need our support?" he said.
The motion failed 11-6, with the same vote count as the overall resolution was approved. Republicans Robert Hoffman, Karen Joliat, Robert Smiley, Spisz and Long voted to postpone and then against the resolution, along with Nelson. Republican Commissioners Michael Gingell and Philip Weipert were not present at the vote.
In a statement following the vote, Right to Life of Michigan President Amber Roseboom said the "vote represents a complete failure of local government to hold itself accountable to the taxpayers.”
Why Oakland County is investing in Planned Parenthood
Oakland County residents made more than 6,000 visits to Planned Parenthood between July 2025 and July 2026. During public comment, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Michigan Paula Thornton Greear said more than 4,100 of those visits happened at the Ferndale Health Center.
Woodward said neither the county health department nor Honor Community Health, with which the county has partnered before, has the immediate capacity to take 6,000 additional visits in a year, though building that capacity is something the board could explore long term.
Ahead of the vote, Woodward said the county funds will not be allowed to go toward political campaigns, only healthcare reimbursements through the health department.
Dozens of residents commented in favor of the resolution, saying they approve of the county supporting women's healthcare and talking about how the clinic has personally benefited or could benefit them or someone they know.
Commissioner Angela Powell said she benefited from Planned Parenthood in high school and that it provided advising and consulting that helped her navigate talking to her parents in that space as a teenager.
"I've always been happy that they were in our high school in the city of Pontiac to help guide us and advise us as we needed at that time," she said. "They are providing more services than just abortion."
Commissioner Brendan Johnson said as a Roman Catholic he is pro-life. To him, that means aiming to improve life for everyone through public policy, like supporting family planning services and evidence-based sex education Planned Parenthood provides, he said. He asked opponents to look past the abortion debate and see the overall public health benefits that can come with supporting Planned Parenthood.
"There's an awful lot that our federal government does that I really dislike," Johnson said. "In my own mind, all of my federal tax dollars go directly to funding the National Park Service, not bombs, not electric shock gloves, just happy bison and towering redwoods."
Planned Parenthood health centers often provide low-cost or free services for people with no or little insurance coverage.
"(For) working families, hourly wage earners, students, Medicaid recipients, uninsured residents, members of our Black, brown and LGBTQ+ communities facing persistent systemic barriers," Thornton Greear said during public comment. "Ferndale serves as a critical trusted access point for cancer screenings, STI treatment, birth control, wellness exams and so much more."
Contact Natalie Davies at ndavies@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Why Oakland County is giving $1.5 million to Planned Parenthood
