After the U.S. Supreme Court decided to overturn Roe v. Wade, Michigan voters approved an amendment to include abortion rights in the state constitution, according to unofficial election night results.
Proposition 3 establishes a “fundamental right to reproductive freedom” that includes, but is not limited to, the right to seek an abortion. For example, it also protects the right to contraception and infertility care.
As of 9:35 a.m. Wednesday, with an estimated 87% of votes counted, 56% of Michigan voters approved Proposition 3, while 44% voted against it, according to unofficial results compiled by The Associated Press. Voters approved two other ballot proposals Tuesday: one to establish early voting in Michigan and another to amend legislative term limits and add financial disclosures for some elected officials to the state constitution.
“Today, the people of Michigan voted to restore the reproductive rights they’ve had for 50 years,” said Darcy McConnell, director of communications for Reproductive Freedom for All, the group behind Proposition 3. Access to our state and our country — and Michigan’s nationwide Roe v. Wade has paved the way for future efforts to restore rights and protections.”
Alyssa Teague, a 34-year-old Ferndale voter, was one of several canvassers in Michigan gathering signatures to put abortion rights on the statewide ballot. “It’s really important for people to have autonomy over their own bodies, and that’s between a woman, their family, and their doctor, not the government,” she said Tuesday outside her polling place at Ferndale High School.
Supporters billed the amendment as necessary to prevent the implementation of a 1931 state law, which criminalized most abortions, including cases of rape and incest. A judge suspended the implementation of that law in response to a lawsuit by Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer alleging that the abortion ban violates the Michigan Constitution. “In a historic victory, the successful passage of Proposition 3 makes Michigan the first state to defeat a statewide abortion ban,” Reproductive Freedom for All said in a statement.
Support for Proposition 3 comes after Michigan voters rejected two abortion-related ballot measures in previous decades.
In 1972, before the U.S. Supreme Court issued its landmark Roe v. Wade decision guaranteeing a national right to abortion, Michigan voters rejected a proposal to allow physicians to perform abortions up to 20 weeks. In 1988, Michigan voters rejected a ballot proposal that would have prohibited public funding for abortions by recipients of public assistance unless necessary to save the life of the mother.
Legal experts have argued that Proposition 3 provides stronger protections for the right to seek an abortion in Michigan. The amendment prohibits regulations unless “the limited purpose of protecting the health of the person seeking care, consistent with clinical standards of practice and evidence-based medicine.”
That opens the door to banning abortions later in pregnancy when a health care professional deems the fetus viable, unless lawmakers prohibit abortions “to protect the life or physical or mental health of the pregnant person.”
Opponents have blasted the proposal as extreme, saying it would repeal parental consent requirements for minors seeking abortions as well as health and safety regulations for abortion providers. Legal experts have disputed those claims. To be sure, the next Michigan Supreme Court will decide on some legal questions about how to implement the potential amendment.
Support MI Women and Children, a coalition opposed to Proposition 3, said it expects an onslaught of legal challenges to the proposal. “We will hold the sponsors of this proposal accountable for their claims that any law beyond the 1931 Act would be invalidated,” group spokeswoman Kristen Polo said in a statement. “We hope to respond to the inevitable flood of litigation that will accompany this amendment by urging the authors of this proposal to maintain laws such as parental consent as promised to the people of Michigan.”
Reproductive Freedom for All filed a record number of signatures to qualify for the statewide ballot but faced a dramatic path to the ballot.
The state’s election panel initially deadlocked on partisan lines to validate the proposal, alleging that there was insufficient spacing between words in the text of the amendment circulated to collect signatures by opponents of the amendment. But the Michigan Supreme Court ordered the panel to approve the measure for a vote.
County canvassing boards must review and sign off on election results by Nov. 22. The state board of canvassers is scheduled to meet Nov. 28 to verify the results, including the results of the Proposition 3 vote.