According to another group involved with the campaign, Michigan Advance, the ballot measure would amend Michigan’s constitution explicitly to affirm Michiganders’ right to “make and carry out decisions relating to pregnancy, including abortion, birth control, prenatal care and childbirth.”
Michigan is one of several states with an abortion law on the books which is currently unenforceable due to Roe v. Wade. A 1931 Michigan state law makes it a felony for anyone to provide an abortion unless “necessary to preserve the life of such woman.”
Michigan is not the only state where efforts to enshrine abortion rights into state law are underway. In Vermont, a similar ballot measure has been in the works and will likely appear on the November ballot.
New Jersey lawmakers passed a bill on Jan. 10 which codifies a “fundamental right to reproductive autonomy, which includes the right to contraception, the right to terminate a pregnancy, and the right to carry a pregnancy to term.” That bill is awaiting the New Jersey governor’s signature.
Michigan recorded nearly 30,000 abortions performed in 2020, the most in the state since 1996, but still 40% fewer than the peak of 49,000 in 1987, the Detroit Free Press reported.
Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer has called on the Republican-led state legislature to repeal the abortion ban.
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