By Katherine Dailey, Michigan Advance
At a GOP fundraiser in Oakland County alongside U.S. Rep. Tom Barrett (R-Charlotte), Michigan House Appropriations Committee Chair Rep. Ann Bollin (R-Brighton Twp.) alleged that money from Rx Kids, a prenatal and infant direct cash support program, was going to parents who would take the money and then get abortions.
In audio first published by Distill Social, Bollin called the program “no guardrails welfare for pregnant women and in the first year of a child’s life.”
“No income requirements, no guardrails, don’t even know how long they’ve lived in Michigan, you just say, ‘Hey, I’m signing up for this, I’m so and so and I’m pregnant’,” she continued. “Then they can abort that baby, so they could collect months of this and then abort their baby, and they’ve got that money, or they get it for the first couple of months.”
There is no evidence to Bollin’s claims about mothers collecting the money available to them prenatally and then getting abortions. Dr. Mona Hanna, who founded Rx Kids in Flint and leads the program throughout the state, noted that evidence actually shows that the program is supporting mothers’ decisions to keep their baby and not have an abortion for financial reasons — adding that the program is supported by the Michigan Catholic Conference, which is notably against abortion, for being pro-family.
“For example, in Flint, in the first year, we actually had an increase in the number of births after a 25 year decline, and we don’t know exactly why,” Hanna said. “What we’re seeing is that these dollars provide a little bit of an economic cushion to actually support a family’s decision to grow their family.”
Additionally, eligibility for the program requires that moms receiving money are 16 or more weeks pregnant, and statistics reported by KFF show that around 96% of abortions take place at 15 weeks or earlier.
Proponents of the program — which had $18.5 million in funding cut during the slashing of work project funding at the end of 2025 by Bollin’s committee, a decision that was heavily criticized as undemocratic — were quick to attack Bollin for her comments on the program.
“Once again, Michigan Republicans like Matt Hall and Ann Bollin are using their platforms to attack some of the most vulnerable Michiganders—newborns and mothers,” said Michigan Democratic Party spokesperson Sara Isaacson in a press release from the party. “It’s despicable, but Michigan Democrats will continue to stand up for every mother and child that Republicans have abandoned.”
Bollin did not respond to a request for comment from the Michigan Advance. Her comments follow an attack on Rx Kids in February by Michigan House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township), who accused the program, again without evidence, that the program is designed to attract undocumented immigrants so they can vote illegally for Democrats.
Hall’s baseless Rx Kids attack betrays Michigan’s most vulnerable, which seems to be the point
“Rx Kids is built to have as little bureaucracy as possible, without a lot of red tape, without lots of strings, without growing government. And that’s actually why it’s been so bipartisanly supported, is because it’s so efficient,” Hanna said. “Rx Kids has a lot of safeguards. We have lots of processes in place that this is going to the right person at the right time in the right place, lots of safeguarding processes, fraud detection processes that help confirm identity, residency, pregnancy and childbirth.”
Earlier in March, Rx Kids, which is administered by Michigan State University, released a report on how the money given out through the program is being used — the money, $1,500 during pregnancy, and babies receive $500 per month for either 6 or 12 months after birth depending on location, is intentionally provided without limits on what it can be spent on in order to provide flexibility to parents before and after the birth of the child.
“We are delivering on that and bringing this program to Republican babies and Democratic babies and all babies, because, by and large, this is nonpartisan work,” Hanna said.
The majority of the funding, the report showed, went to baby supplies, food, rent or housing expenses, and utilities. The report also demonstrated “virtually no spending on luxury or discretionary items, reinforcing decades of research that families use direct support to meet essential needs.”
“The beauty of Rx Kids is that we are trusting moms,” she added. “This is a program that trusts women to decide and families decide how best to meet their needs.”
Michigan Advance is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Michigan Advance maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jon King for questions: info@michiganadvance.com.
