Anti-abortion protesters collect at Michigan Capitol as lawsuit is filed to overturn Proposal 3

The lawsuit was swiftly condemned by a number of Michigan lawmakers and Deliberate Parenthood Advocates of Michigan, whose president, Paula Thornton Greear, mentioned that outcomes from Tuesday’s election in Ohio reaffirm People’ assist for reproductive freedom.

“As we noticed final 12 months in Michigan and once more final evening in Ohio: abortion is a successful concern,” Greear mentioned. “The Republican Celebration is aware of it, too, however quite than admit that they’re dramatically out of step with American values and American voters, they resort to soiled techniques like these as a substitute. This baseless lawsuit is nothing however a brazen political try and overturn the desire of the individuals and impose harmful anti-abortion insurance policies on an voters that doesn’t need them.”

Rallygoers from across the state gathered on the Capitol garden and had been addressed by lawmakers, anti-abortion activists and spiritual officers about the way forward for Michigan’s anti-abortion motion in a post-Proposal 3 world. 

State Rep. Jaime Greene (R-Lapeer) mentioned that her experiences as a rape survivor and mom to a baby with a genetic dysfunction inform her views on abortion, and condemned legislative “insanity” at the moment dominating the state.

“It has deepened my understanding of the significance of correct reverence for the human stays and fostered in mere respect for each particular person,” Greene mentioned. “Whether or not they take their first breath, or have their life reduce tragically quick earlier than start, there’s completely no excuse for abortion on the earth of Jaime Greene.” 

The gang at Michigan March for Life pic.twitter.com/fcl2GnOWob

— Anna Liz Nichols (@annaliznichols) November 8, 2023

Along with Proposal 3, payments handed by the Legislature final week are set to be signed by Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. The Reproductive Well being Act will get rid of a number of of what Democrats known as Michigan’s present obstacles to abortion care, together with a ban on what’s referred to as “partial start” abortion, or the dilation and extraction process generally used later in pregnancies, and sure laws on outpatient abortion clinics. 

Varied abortion rights teams praised the passage of this laws. A coalition together with the ACLU of Michigan, Reproductive Freedom For All Michigan and the Ladies’s Group on Rights to Well being on the College of Michigan mentioned in a press release that whereas it was happy with the passage of additional abortion protections, the actions of some lawmakers led to the package deal’s reforms turning into “watered down.”

“With out eliminating the Medicaid abortion ban and the 24-hour mandated delay, entry to abortion care will stay out of attain for too many throughout our state,” the assertion mentioned. 

Rep. Karen Whitsett (D-Detroit), the lone Democratic holdout on the package deal, was in a position to block the passage of measures banning Michigan’s necessary 24-hour ready interval and permitting abortion sufferers to cowl care below Medicaid. 

Whitsett advised her colleagues that if the payments contained any allowance for using Medicaid on abortions, she would vote towards the package deal in its entirety.