Lansing Update: MCC Offers Support for Program Helping Mothers and Babies Before and After Birth
Posted August 15, 2025
MCC Testifies in Favor of Providing Material Support for Moms and Babies
A program providing direct assistance to expectant mothers during pregnancy and throughout their baby’s first year of life would officially become part of state law, under legislation supported by MCC.
Known as RxKids, the public and privately funded partnership provides mothers with $1,500 in cash assistance during pregnancy and $500 monthly for six to 12 months after their child’s birth.
Eligibility for RxKids is not constrained by income, but the program has been operating in communities that have a significant population of lower-income families. It was launched in Flint several years ago and has expanded to Kalamazoo, Pontiac, the eastern Upper Peninsula, and Clare County.
The program, by not putting stipulations on how assistance is used, provides recipients the flexibility to address their material needs while minimizing administrative and bureaucratic hurdles.
MCC supports the RxKids program because of its direct assistance to mothers and children in need in lower-income communities in Michigan, which aligns with MCC’s advocacy principles to promote and protect human life as well as provide for the poor and vulnerable in society.
“By helping mothers pay for critical pre-natal and infant health care services and other expenses surrounding childbirth, RxKids can help mothers provide their babies the care they need while in the womb and after they are born,” said Tom Hickson, vice president for public policy and advocacy for MCC, in testimony before a Senate committee this week. “This program has been a wonderful help to expectant mothers and their babies who need extra support during this critical stage of life.”
MCC, as well as some RxKids supporters, see this as a pro-life initiative that provides mothers facing difficult circumstances with the resources they need to make a choice for life and avoid resorting to abortion.
According to the RxKids website, more than $13.1 million has been provided to the 3,100 Michigan families who have enrolled in the program, nearly half of whom reported having a household income of $10,000 or less annually.
The Legislature has increased state support for the program over the past few years through the annual budget process, from $16.5 million to $20 million in the current budget, which MCC has supported. Senate Bill 309, sponsored by Sen. Sylvia Santana (D-Detroit), would officially implement the program in state law, subject to funding provided by the Legislature.
The Senate Housing and Human Services Committee took testimony only on Senate Bill 309 this week.
As Students Head Back to School, MCC Continues Advocacy for Nonpublic Schools
The return to school is once again on many Michigan families’ minds, whether the first day of school is fast approaching or has already commenced. For MCC, however, education advocacy for the 50,000 Michigan students who attend Catholic schools and the 100,000 total students who choose nonpublic education is a year-round endeavor.
This week, MCC published a new Word from Lansing column in Detroit Catholic as well as the upcoming edition of U.P. Catholic that shares with a broader Catholic audience a summary of MCC’s recent advocacy for Catholic and nonpublic schools in the next state budget.
As Lansing Update readers know, legislative action on the budget is at a standstill and negotiations continue over the summer, as the budget must ultimately be completed before the new fiscal year begins October 1.
Meanwhile, the opportunity to remind your lawmaker to support a budget that includes nonpublic school students remains available if you have not already done so. To send a message, visit micatholic.org/supportstudents.
Members of the Catholic Advocacy Network like you are also encouraged to share the Action Alert link with people in your networks, as well as a series of videos that encourage support for nonpublic schools and the state-funded services MCC is advocating for that help their students.
Celebrating Our Lady, Assumed Body and Soul Into Heavenly Glory
Today marks the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which recognizes the Church’s teaching that “the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory,” as was officially declared by Pope Pius XII in 1950.
An important takeaway for Catholics today is to remember our end is not here on Earth, but rather meant for heaven—our body and soul together. Our Lady precedes us on this journey and now intercedes for us from heaven, praying for us to complete our earthly pilgrimage.
“The feast of the assumption of our Lady prompts us to acknowledge the basis for this joyful hope. Yes, we are still pilgrims, but our mother has gone on ahead, where she points to the reward of our efforts. She tells us that we can make it. And, if we are faithful, we will reach home.”
St. Josemaria Escriva, Christ is Passing By, accessed here, which includes more reflections on the Assumption.
