The Muskegon County Board of Commissioners has evicted Planned Parenthood from Its Muskegon Heights location, as Board members voted to remove the controversial health clinic from a County Public Health building. County Commissioners voted 6-2 to evict Planned Parenthood from its Muskegon Heights premises Tuesday, as Planned Parenthood officials say they were blind sighted by the decision, having only learned of the vote just over a week ago.
County officials say the health department needs the currently leased space for immunizations and other services, but Planned Parenthood official are calling the vote politically charged. Angela Vasquez- Giroux is the Director of Communications and Media Relations.
“The Commissioner who was leading the charge on this ran his campaign on keeping Planned Parenthood out of Muskegon so it is pretty clear that it is political,” Vasquez Giroux said. “It’s really upsetting to see elected leaders put politics before people and their communities. And it’s just unfortunate.”
Vasquez Giroux is talking about Muskegon County Commissioner and newcomer Zach Lahring. Lahring made this campaign pledge last November:
“What I would like to say is my number one goal is to get rid of Planned Parenthood out of the Muskegon County Health Department," Lahring said at a candidate forumn in 2018. "That will be the first thing on the Board is try and get rid of them.”
However, Lahring says Planned Parenthood blaming him for what was ultimately a Board decision, is inappropriate.
“Planned Parenthood has had 10 years to fix the problem,” Lahring said. “And yet we have continued to see our STD rates continue to climb the entire time they have been in there. So I don’t really see where they have anything to grumble about. This was not political. This was a business decision the county has made to do better for our residents in Muskegon County.”
Planned Parenthood has 90 days to vacate the building. The location does not offer abortion as one of its services.