Abortion Rights Ballot Measure Not Yet Approved In Michigan As Board Deadlocks

Topline

The Michigan Board of Canvassers split Wednesday on whether to approve a proposed ballot measure that would add constitutional protections for abortion rights, leaving it up to the courts to determine whether the initiative will make it on the ballot in November as abortion rights already hang in the balance in the battleground state.

Members of the Michigan state Board of Canvassers listen to a speaker during a hearing on August 31 … [+] in Lansing, Michigan, to consider ballot measures on abortion and voting rights.

Key Facts

The Michigan Board of State Canvassers voted 2-2 on the ballot measure—splitting along party lines, with two Republicans objecting and two Democrats voting for it—which means the ballot sponsors will now ask the Michigan Supreme Court to overrule the board’s decision and put the initiative on the ballot.

The dispute over the ballot measure hinged on typing errors in the proposed ballot measure like missing spaces between words, which the Republican board members and opponents of the initiative said made it “gibberish” and justified it being rejected in its present form.

Ballot measure proponents argued the board did not actually have the authority to reject it on those grounds and they should have only judged the measure based on if a sufficient number of signatures were submitted in support of it, which there were.

The Reproductive Freedom for All ballot measure would amend the Michigan Constitution to state there’s a “fundamental right to reproductive freedom,” which includes abortion rights along with contraception, prenatal care, postpartum care, miscarriage care, childbirth, infertility care and sterilization.

The state would be able to regulate abortion after a fetus is viable—as was allowed under Roe v. Wade—but still couldn’t prohibit abortions then if medically necessary, and the amendment would prohibit any punishments against anyone who gets an abortion or anyone who helps them obtain one.

The state Bureau of Elections recommended last week that the state canvassers approve the ballot measure, ruling 596,379 valid signatures were submitted in favor of it, which the Associated Press notes is nearly 150,000 more than required.

Chief Critic

“If you do this, you are setting a precedent that you can disapprove petitions for made-up reasons without any basis in the statute,” ballot measure sponsor Steve Liedel told the board Wednesday about voting to reject the initiative. “That’s not faithful to the text of the Michigan election law.”

Tangent

In addition to the reproductive rights measure, the board also deadlocked Wednesday on a ballot measure on voting rights. That measure, which the canvassers split on in a 2-2 vote, would impose measures to expand voting access in the battleground state if passed, such as nine days of early voting and more ballot drop boxes, and prevent new significant voting restrictions from being enacted. It also responds to former President Donald Trump’s efforts to challenge the state’s results in 2020, by requiring election officials to certify results based only on the official vote count—meaning they can’t refuse to certify them based on allegations of fraud—and prohibiting audits by people who aren’t election officials. It will now be up to a state court to determine whether to overturn the board’s vote and put the measure on the ballot.

What To Watch For

What will happen with abortion rights in Michigan. Abortion is now legal in the state, but there’s a decades-old law on the books from before Roe v. Wade was decided that would outlaw the procedure if allowed to go back into effect. Courts have now blocked that policy from being enforced, but judges could ultimately allow the law to take effect in the future, if the abortion ballot measure fails or doesn’t make the ballot.

What We Don’t Know

If more states will consider abortion ballot measures for future elections. Pro- and anti-abortion rights advocates in such states as Arizona, Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Dakota and South Dakota have said they’re working on abortion-related initiatives that could be on the ballot in 2023 and 2024.

Key Background

If the measure is ultimately approved in court, Michigan will be one of five states with abortion-related measures on the ballot in November. California and Vermont also have ballot initiatives that will add language protecting abortion rights to their state constitutions, while Kentucky’s amendment will amend the Constitution to state abortion rights are not protected if approved. Montana’s will be more narrowly focused on granting legal rights to infants who are “born alive,” including those born after attempted abortions. Abortion ballot measures have drawn more attention following one in Kansas earlier in August, where an initiative that would have paved the way for new abortion restrictions was defeated in a landslide vote, suggesting voters’ broad opposition to harsh abortion bans even in Republican-leaning states. The success of the Kansas measure has inspired more abortion rights advocates to look to ballot measures as a possible way to defend reproductive rights, the Washington Post reports, given the American public largely supports legal abortion even as GOP lawmakers try to ban it.