Republican gubernatorial candidates have endorsed Michigan’s dangerous 1931 abortion ban, but this afternoon on Mackinac Island, they went even further in their radical push to strip rights from Michiganders and confirmed that they would proactively pursue new restrictions on abortion.
When asked if they would accept an outcome in which the Michigan Supreme Court ruled in favor of Governor Whitmer’s argument that the state constitution “protects a right to bodily integrity,” the candidates committed to furthering their extreme anti-choice crusade by exhausting every avenue to outlaw reproductive freedom – even if that means defying Court precedent by pursuing new draconian legislation.
Millions of women and families are likely weeks away from a post-Roe v. Wade Michigan, in which abortion is criminalized, reproductive healthcare providers are made felons for doing their jobs, and exceptions for rape and incest are entirely eliminated.
To prevent this disastrous outcome, Governor Whitmer took the historic step in April to file a lawsuit seeking for the Michigan Supreme Court to “rule that a 1931 law criminalizing abortion violates the state constitution.” Should the suit be successful, reproductive health care won’t be deemed a felony within the state regardless of whether the U.S. Supreme Court guts or fully eliminates protections granted by Roe v. Wade.
