Already, activists have gathered the signatures to put a pro-abortion measure on the ballot this fall.
Already, activists have gathered the signatures to put a pro-abortion measure on the ballot this fall.
A bortion proponents in Michigan have been hard at work in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s monumental June 24 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health. One group, Reproductive Freedom for All, partnered with Planned Parenthood Advocates of Michigan and the state’s chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union to ramp up their circulation of ballot petitions for a statewide referendum that would enshrine the right to an abortion in the state’s constitution. By July 11, they had gained over 753,000 signatures, close to double the 425,000 needed to put the issue on the ballot this November.
Pro-life groups have been dealt a difficult hand in the state. Governor Gretchen Whitmer has also filed a lawsuit asking the Michigan supreme court to overturn a 1931 abortion ban; meanwhile a lower court has issued an injunction against the law’s enforcement as it adjudicates a similar lawsuit from Planned Parenthood.
Nevertheless, Christen Pollo, spokeswoman for Citizens to Support MI Women and Children, the coalition of groups leading the charge against an abortion-rights amendment, is confident it can be defeated if pro-lifers advertise the radical nature of the proposal, which she called a “Pandora’s Box.”
“I don’t think the voters and those who signed this petition were really aware of the full truth,” she said in an interview with National Review. “I don’t think they were aware that this proposed amendment would legalize abortion through all nine months of pregnancy.”
The amendment’s text explicitly prohibits any regulation by the legislature prior to fetal viability, which changes based on technological advancements but currently stands at around 24 weeks of pregnancy. Although it allows lawmakers to prohibit abortion after that stage, it stipulates that the state must exempt abortion that, “in the professional judgment of an attending health care professional, is medically indicated to protect the life or physical or mental health of the pregnant individual.”
In other words, the text as written provides a loophole for abortion on demand to continue up to the moment of birth. “What we know from decades under Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton,” Pollo told NR, “is that those words — ‘physical and mental health’ — have allowed abortion through all nine months of pregnancy for many years.” Providers can use that type of vague language to justify performing late-term abortions to alleviate even mild discomfort such as stomach aches and anxiety about labor, she said.
Although Americans generally have little stomach for complete bans such as the 1931 law, they are generally supportive of restrictions on abortion. Seventy-two percent of Americans support a 15-week ban, while 49 percent support a limit at six weeks, according to a recent Harvard-Harris poll. Both measures would be explicitly illegal in Michigan if voters approve the proposal.
Should the proposed constitutional amendment make the ballot, which is pretty much a fait accompli at this point, the coalition will undertake a huge effort in Michigan complete with media appearances and door knocking to “let people know what’s actually hidden in the language of this [referendum] text,” Pollo said.
She and other public faces of the campaign will utilize the conversational strategies of Protect Life Michigan, for which Pollo serves as the executive director. At the heart of their tactics is a civil- and human-rights-based (rather than theological) approach to abortion arguments.
“Essentially, we ask people what they think about abortion and listen as they explain their position, their personal experience, whatever it is, and try really hard to build common ground with people. So many of the issues facing our country today are so divisive and people want to be heard,” Pollo said.
Protect Life is one of nearly 20 members of the coalition against the referendum. Membership includes both secular groups such as Protect Life and religious groups such as the Michigan Catholic Conferences. It’s one in which the conservative Citizens for Traditional Values partners with Democrats for Life. It also includes medical organizations such as Michigan Nurses for Life and the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
Their effort will likely affect Michigan’s fraught gubernatorial race. Although candidates vying for the Republican nomination to challenge Whitmer have been reluctant to establish abortion as a centerpiece of their campaigns, the governor has tried to make the election a referendum on abortion. In a recent profile in the Washington Post, she described how she encouraged her daughters, one of whom is gay, to pursue long-term birth control and delete the period-tracking apps from their phones in response to Roe’s reversal. Abortion’s legal status will play a vital role in whether her daughters choose to live in Michigan long-term, she said.
Making abortion Whitmer’s top issue will not “bode well for her,” Pollo said. “What she’s pushing on our state doesn’t fall in line with what the people in our state believe.”
The road ahead for the Michigan pro-life movement will be filled with challenges. Pro-lifers will need to battle a hostile and litigious governor as well as an axis of high-profile pro-abortion organizations. But if it can conquer these opponents, it will produce a triumph: the first hard-fought pro-life victory in a post-Roe world.