ANN ARBOR, MI — Anti-abortion advocates braved frigid rain in Ann Arbor to participate in a nationwide protest of Planned Parenthood.
“Everyone has a right to life,” Kristy Bonasso of Ann Arbor said at the demonstration Wednesday, April 2. “God brought us here, and who are we say that we should destroy what he’s created.”
A small group gathered around noon to hold signs at the intersection of Washtenaw Avenue and Huron Parkway. A Planned Parenthood clinic is located a block away on Professional Drive.
Protests were planned across the country Wednesday to support defunding the clinics, which provide abortions and other medical services.
Demonstrators are participating in the 40 Days for Life campaign. The campaign involves prayer vigils outside Planned Parenthood clinics during the Christian observance of Lent.
“Defunding Planned Parenthood is crucial,” Sandie Weathers, a 40 Days for Life campaign director for the Ann Arbor region, said. “The funds that are used should be used for pregnancy centers that actually help women and provide care that is life-affirming.”
Weathers said Planned Parenthood uses tax dollars for political reasons rather than to help women.
Signs asking passing motorists to pray for the end of abortion were placed by protesters along Washtenaw Avenue in Ann Arbor, Wednesday, April 2, 2025.Jen Eberbach/MLive
The nearby Planned Parenthood clinic was closed Wednesday, and representatives could not be reached by phone.
Protesters also criticized Proposition 3, also known as the Reproductive Freedom for All initiative, which voters in the state passed in 2022 to amend the state constitution to protect rights to abortions and contraception.
In 2023, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed the state’s Reproductive Health Act, which repealed some restrictions related to abortions in the state.
The nationwide protests come as the U.S. Supreme Court is hearing the case of Kerr v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic. The case revolves around Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood clinics in South Carolina.
It could upend an option for South Carolina residents on Medicaid to use the clinics for medical services, according to the Associated Press. The state’s Republican governor, Henry McMaster, is pushing to block any public health care dollars from going to Planned Parenthood. Federal law dictates Medicaid dollars cannot pay for abortions, with very few exceptions. However, patients also use the clinics for general health care.
“On April 2, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear the case of Kerr v. Planned Parenthood deciding whether states have the right to defund Planned Parenthood,” Citizens for a Pro-Life Society said in a release, “thus pro-life people from coast to coast will protest at Planned Parenthood centers around the country to call for the defunding of America’s abortion giant.”
The Trump administration told some Planned Parenthood affiliates earlier this week Title X funding would be withheld, effective Tuesday, April 1.
“This decision will hurt patients across the country who rely on Planned Parenthood health centers to get sexual and reproductive health care,” Planned Parenthood Action Fund officials said in a statement issued Monday, March 31.
“Title X is the nation’s only federal program dedicated to providing affordable birth control, cancer screenings, and other sexual and reproductive health care to people with low incomes,” it states.
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