Proposal 3 would give Michigan some of the most radical abortion laws in the country. Here are some of the pro-life activists trying to persuade the state to say no.
Proposal 3 would give Michigan some of the most radical abortion laws in the country. Here are some of the pro-life activists trying to persuade the state to say no.
Ann Arbor, Mich. — In the wake of the Supreme Court’s June 24 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, a pro-abortion fervor swept through the state of Michigan. Organizers from Planned Parenthood and a group called Reproductive Freedom for All collected signatures for an amendment to enshrine the right to abortion in the Michigan constitution.
Less than a month after the court handed down Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, the organizations had collected 753,000 signatures, almost double the 425,000 necessary to put it up for a vote. Now, it is on the ballot as “Proposal 3.” Michiganders will need to decide whether their state will embrace the most radical abortion laws in the country.
Local pro-life groups have been mobilizing to ensure the amendment’s defeat. Proposal 3 is “too confusing and too extreme for Michigan,” Christen Pollo told National Review. Pollo serves as the spokeswoman for Citizens to Support MI Women and Children, the coalition of pro-life groups working to defeat the referendum.
“This is a constitutional amendment that is written intentionally very broadly and would really have some sweeping consequences not just when it comes to abortion regulations, but also to parental-consent laws,” she said.
Proposal 3’s proponents have marketed it as a simple return to the status quo under Roe. But its text is so vague that it would make Michigan’s abortion laws more radical than they were under the now-overturned precedent. As NR outlined in a recent editorial, though Proposal 3 would allow the state to restrict abortion after fetal viability (about 24 weeks into pregnancy), it would mandate broad and ill-defined exceptions for the “mental health of the pregnant individual.” So long as one “health care professional” (could be a doctor, nurse, or even a dentist) agrees that denying abortion will in some way damage the expectant mother’s mental health, the government, under Proposal 3, would have to allow the abortion, no matter the stage of pregnancy.
The text also leaves room for children to receive abortions and even sterilizing sex changes without their parents’ consent. The amendment would guarantee the right of “every individual” to make decisions related to pregnancy, including abortion and sterilization procedures. “The state shall not,” the proposal continues, “discriminate in the protection or enforcement of this fundamental right.” These rights may be abridged only “for the limited purpose of protecting the health of an individual seeking care.” Nowhere does it clarify that the absolute right applies only to adults. Nor does it contain any language guaranteeing the right of parents to consent to any reproduction-adjacent procedure.
“Regardless of whether you’re pro-life or pro-choice, this is something that should concern all of us because these are extreme policies that would be added to our founding document, permanently,” said Pollo.
To fight the proposal, Pollo’s organization has been using all the resources at its disposal, including television ads, which repeat the slogan, “Too confusing, too extreme.” Another large part of the effort has been the grassroots side, which mainly consists of door-knocking.
Pollo has been “encouraged” by the reception. Though an 84-year-old volunteer was shot and injured while canvassing in late September, that was an extremely isolated incident, she said.
“I’m seeing people across the political divide and even across the abortion divide,” she told NR, “pledging to vote ‘No’ on Proposal 3 because they see it as being way too extreme.”
Also on the front lines of the battle to change both votes and hearts are local college students. Protect Life Michigan, which Pollo runs in addition to her work as a spokeswoman, has chapters at various schools across the state.
“We’ve had tons and tons of volunteers going out every weeknight and weekend,” Protect Life at Michigan State University president Audrey Whipple told NR. “We’ve been trying to mobilize students and mobilize all the pro-lifers in the state to be active.”
As Pollo said, Whipple and the volunteers she leads have found a lot of success at persuasion simply by informing people of the proposal’s defects, framing it not as a polarizing issue, but as one that both pro-lifers and abortion proponents can unite against.
Hanna Merrithew, head of the Protect Life chapter at the University of Michigan, is working to show students the evil of abortion more generally.
“We had two heart changes two weeks ago, which was really exciting,” Merrithew told NR. One reason for that success, she said, is the club’s focus on the meat of the abortion issue. Though the chapter is also canvassing against Proposal 3, Merrithew’s campus outreach focuses more on the ideas behind it.
“We’re having regular outreach,” she said. “We’re just talking to people about abortion, and, if we feel like they would be a good candidate to vote ‘No’ on it, then we bring it up to them.”
Both Merrithew and Whipple have sacrificed parts of their college experiences for their pro-life work. Merrithew has had to balance her outreach with taking the hardest classes for her major. Whipple could not watch the football game between Michigan and Michigan State last month because it was the only time she had to do homework.
Backlash makes their work harder. While both said the reception to their outreach has been positive, each reported experiencing the heated nature of the abortion debate.
“A couple of times I’ve had people offended that I’m a woman in opposition to Proposal 3,” Whipple said. Meanwhile, Merrithew reported having people who “weren’t really open to hearing our side” come to her club members’ outreach table on campus simply to waste their time so they could not talk to others.
But they are willing to endure it for the sake of the cause.
“If there’s ever been a time to be sacrificial, to spread yourself thin and to make those uncomfortable choices, whether it be staying up really late to finish your homework assignment or doing something that maybe you don’t want to do,” Whipple said, “I think we ultimately need to remember the issue of abortion is so much bigger than Audrey Whipple or any individual.”
Pollo, Whipple, Merrithew, and their cohorts are up against a Goliath of an effort in favor of Proposal 3. A recent campaign-finance report found that Reproductive Freedom for All has raised more than $40 million, largely from dark-money groups, including George Soros’s Open Society Foundation, as well as from individual donors such as former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg. Citizens to Support MI Women and Children has raised less than half that amount.
The most recent polls showed a 14-point lead in favor of Proposal 3 one week before Election Day. If pro-lifers can prevail against the abortion radicalism that is on the ballot, they will give the movement its first major victory in a post-Roe world.