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Michigan county approves $1.5M in funding for Planned Parenthood. The Board of Commissioners in Oakland County, Michigan, voted on Thursday to provide more than $1.5 million in funding to Planned Parenthood. Key takeaways: * The Oakland County Board of Commissioners in Michigan has voted to give Planned Parenthood $1.5 million in taxpayer dollars. * The money will be used specifically for the Ferndale Planned Parenthood. * Planned Parenthood, which recently closed three Michigan facilities, frequently cites funding cuts as a reason for closures. In reality, it has been planning for years to transition to a telehealth business model. The details: Oakland County Board of Commissioners voted 11-6 to award Planned Parenthood $1.5 million of taxpayer dollars to help operate its Ferndale, Michigan, facility through August 2028. The funding comes weeks after Planned Parenthood announced it was closing three other Michigan facilities, allegedly due to federal funding cuts. Commissioner Charlie Cavell alluded to those federal cuts (which were restored in July) as one reason why he voted yes to the proposal. "Planned Parenthood has been going through a transition where they've been losing a bunch of money from federal sources, so this is a great opportunity to step in," Cavell said. In an opposing vote, Commissioner Christine Long said she received many phone calls urging her to vote 'no.' "I am against it using taxpayers' funding. The $1.5 million, that's a hefty amount of tax dollars," she noted. Amber Roseboom, President, Right to Life of Michigan, decried the decision to fund the abortion giant, noting that nationally, Planned Parenthood has enough funds to have spent tens of millions on upcoming elections: "This is a flagrant abuse of the taxpayers' trust and resources... Peddling the idea that Planned Parenthood needs this infusion of cash under the guise of healthcare is an insult to every taxpayer in the county. Begging the taxpayer for resources in the midst of a midterm election in which they have already sent more than $50,000 to Jocelyn's Benson's campaign for governor and their national organization has committed $47 million to defeat Republicans is an absolute disgrace." Reality check: For years, Planned Parenthood has been playing the victim in order to gather as much in taxpayer funding as possible, blaming federal funding cuts as a reason why its brick and mortar facilities are closing. However, as Live Action News previously documented, the organization's closure announcements are routinely misleading. For years, it has planned to transition to a telehealth business model with virtual health centers. Through these virtual centers, it can continue to offer the abortion pill - which now makes up the majority of abortions - without the overhead and expenses of brick and mortar facilities. The bottom line: Taxpayer dollars should never be used to fund an organization that profits in the killing of preborn children. Live Action News is pro-life news and commentary from a pro-life perspective. Its work is possible because of its donors. Please consider giving to further its work of changing hearts and minds on issues of life and human dignity. Contact [email protected] for questions, corrections, or if you are seeking permission to reprint any Live Action News content. Guest Articles: To submit a guest article to Live Action News, email [email protected] with an attached Word document of 800-1000 words. Please also attach any photos relevant to your submission if applicable. If your submission is accepted for publication, you will be notified within three weeks. Guest articles are not compensated (see its Open License Agreement). Thank you for your interest in Live Action News!

Federal court rejects Planned Parenthood's attempt to dismiss $1.8 billion fraud lawsuit. Planned Parenthood faces whistleblower allegations of Medicaid fraud that could cost the abortion giant nearly $2 billion. Thu Aug 13, 2026 - 5:06 pm EDT (LifeSiteNews) - The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected Planned Parenthood's appeal of a fraud ruling that could lead to the abortion giant having to pay back nearly $2 billion in Medicaid payments. The case stems from Louisiana and Texas (among other states) excluding Planned Parenthood from their state Medicaid programs after the 2015 exposure of the organization's harvesting and sale of aborted baby organs and tissues. Planned Parenthood sued in 2016, but the Fifth Circuit sided with the states in 2020. However, the current suit, filed a year later, is based on whistleblower complaints that Planned Parenthood continued to file Medicaid claims in Louisiana or Texas from 2016 to 2020 while its eligibility was in dispute. The false claims suit seeks to recover money from the abortion giant that would total $1.8 billion. The "stakes couldn't be higher" for the abortion giant, March for Life president Jennie Bradley Lichter said last year. "If that ($1.8 billion) obligation stands, it will strike a serious - even existential - blow to Planned Parenthood's national operations and potentially change the abortion landscape in this country forever." On Wednesday, Bloomberg Law reported that a three-judge panel had originally agreed Planned Parenthood had "absolute immunity" from the claims, but the full Fifth Circuit concluded Wednesday that the abortion giant's appeal is too premature to be considered at this stage in the case, on the grounds that "resolving the immunity question would not conclusively determine a separable legal issue in a way that meaningfully advances the litigation." The case now returns to federal district court, where it is far from over, potentially putting the abortion giant back on the hook. According to Planned Parenthood's most recent annual report, it committed 434,450 abortions and 2.27 million "birth control services" in the 2024-2025 reporting period, and 320,390 telehealth appointments. By contrast, it lists a mere 3,038 adoption referrals. The abortion giant's affiliates received $832 million in "government health services reimbursement & grants," which comprised 38 percent of its total revenue. Its government funding increased five percent from the previous year and will likely increase yet again after Congress and the White White failed to renew the one-year ban on its federal funding by the July 4, 2026, expiration date. To end the cycle of having to periodically fight for temporary defunding measures at regular budget intervals, pro-lifers have called for new standalone laws to fully and permanently defund the abortion industry: the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act, which permanently bans federal funds from being used for abortion; and the Defund Planned Parenthood Act, which disqualifies Planned Parenthood and its affiliates specifically. But they would require 60 votes to make it through the Senate. Pro-lifers have also called on the Trump administration to reintroduce the Protect Life Rule, a key policy of President Donald Trump's first term that required "clear financial and physical separation between Title X-funded projects and programs or facilities where abortion is a method of family planning" and banned "referral for abortion as a method of family planning." It reduced Planned Parenthood's annual funding by almost $60 million, and disqualified the abortion giant from the Title X family planning program until former President Joe Biden rescinded it.

Planned Parenthood sues HHS over Title X regulations. The Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) has, again, sued the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) over its Title X rules. Key takeaways: * The Planned Parenthood Federation of America has sued the Department of Health and Human Services over its Title X regulations for Fiscal Year 2027. * The new requirements include that participants "incorporate foundational body and health literacy" into reproductive health counseling, including "education on menstrual cycle physiology, hormonal health, male and female fertility awareness, and early indicators of reproductive disorders... that first emerge in adolescence." * Planned Parenthood argues that the rules put its members at a "complete disadvantage." The details: According to a press release from PPFA, the lawsuit challenges "the Trump-Vance administration's funding application for Title X, which attempts to illegally transform the Title X Family Planning Program into a vehicle for furthering the administration's political goals." This most recent lawsuit is in response to guidelines issued by the HHS in April, stating that facilities that commit or refer for abortion would be ineligible to receive Title X funding for 2027. Other pro-abortion groups - the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association and the Family Health Council of Central Pennsylvania - filed a separate lawsuit against the HHS in June. "None of the funds appropriated under this title shall be used in programs where abortion is a method of family planning," the guidelines state. "The Hyde Amendment expressly prohibits the use of federal funds administered by HHS to pay for elective abortion." The notice continues (emphases added): Live Action expect recipients to demonstrate how their Title X projects maintain strict separation from prohibited activities and contribute to broader HHS efforts to safeguard life-affirming, lawful, and ethical program delivery. Key strategies include, but are not limited to, implementing robust financial and programmatic safeguards; providing clear guidance to staff and subrecipients on Hyde requirements; and establishing monitoring processes that ensure ongoing compliance among staff and subrecipients. In addition, the guidelines state that due to the "growing infertility crisis," clinics approved for Title X funding "will be required to incorporate foundational body and health literacy into reproductive health counseling. This includes education on menstrual cycle physiology, hormonal health, male and female fertility awareness, and early indicators of reproductive disorders... that first emerge in adolescence." The lawsuit argues that HHS's changes to Title X violate the Administrative Procedure Act and the Spending Clause of the U.S. Constitution. It claims that the new rules to qualify for Title X funding "no longer support the goals of the Title X program." The main reasons it offers are that the rules state that applicants must align with the ideas of "'[r]educing overmedicalization in health care' by promoting natural family-planning methods, contributing to agency efforts to 'safeguard lifeaffirming... program delivery,' counseling patients about 'marriage prior to childbearing,' and 'respecting biological reality'" and that this will put "PPFA's members at a complete disadvantage in the FY 2027 Title X grant cycle." The bottom line: Title X funding is a federal program that awards grants to organizations and health departments that provide family planning and preventative health care, including STI prevention, testing, and treatment, birth control, and certain cancer screenings. The funding is prohibited from being used to pay for abortions; however, when abortion organizations such as Planned Parenthood receive Title X funding, it opens up other available funding from other sources to be used to pay for abortions. Live Action News is pro-life news and commentary from a pro-life perspective. Its work is possible because of its donors. Please consider giving to further its work of changing hearts and minds on issues of life and human dignity. Contact [email protected] for questions, corrections, or if you are seeking permission to reprint any Live Action News content. Guest Articles: To submit a guest article to Live Action News, email [email protected] with an attached Word document of 800-1000 words. Please also attach any photos relevant to your submission if applicable. If your submission is accepted for publication, you will be notified within three weeks. Guest articles are not compensated (see its Open License Agreement). Thank you for your interest in Live Action News!