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Whitmer Launches Women's Health Nonprofit

whitmer.senatedems.com

State Senate Dem leader launches women's health nonprofit

The top Democrat in the state Senate is launching a new nonprofit group to help women gain access to health care.

Senate Minority Leader Gretchen Whitmer, D-East Lansing, says the new organization, called Right to Health, will hold forums, conferences, and fundraisers to promote the cause.

"We thought that there was, perhaps, a new space that needed to be occupied that could be a central hub in terms of educating the public, being a watchdog on the federal level and the state level, to engage people," said Whitmer.

She says new state and federal regulations have made it more difficult for women to get the care they need. She specifically identified a state law passed last year banning insurance companies from offering abortion coverage in basic plans.

"These attacks on women don't just affect individual women," said Whitmer. "It affects us as a community, it affects us and our partners, it affects us and our daughters."

The group is partnering with organizations such as Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan.

Republican leaders in the state Legislature have not returned requests for comment.