Michigan May Join These 5 States In Putting Abortion On The Midterms Ballot

Topline

Abortion rights activists in Michigan submitted a record-breaking 753,759 signatures in support of a ballot measure on protecting abortion access on Monday, making it likely Michigan will join a collection of states that will put abortion rights directly to voters in the midterm elections after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

Pro-abortion rights protesters hold placards, chant, and march through downtown Detroit in support … [+] of Roe v Wade.

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Key Facts

Michigan: The Michigan ballot measure, if approved, will ask voters in November to support an amendment to the state constitution that explicitly protects individual reproductive rights—including the right to an abortion and making decisions about a pregnancy, as well as contraception—and prohibits state interference into or prosecution against someone based on those decisions.

California: Voters will be asked in November to approve a constitutional amendment that “prohibit[s]

the state from denying or interfering with an individual’s reproductive freedom in their most intimate decisions,” including abortion rights and contraception.

Vermont: The Vermont ballot measure will ask voters in November to enshrine the “right to personal reproductive autonomy” in the state constitution, which “shall not be denied or infringed” unless there’s a “compelling state interest” that’s fulfilled by the “least restrictive means.”

Kansas: Voters will be asked August 2 during the state’s primary election to amend the state constitution to explicitly state it does not protect abortion rights, which would nullify the Kansas Supreme Court’s existing ruling that protects abortion rights and let the state ban the procedure.

Kentucky: Voters will decide in November whether to amend the state constitution to state nothing in it “shall be construed” as protecting abortion rights or requiring abortion to be funded.

Montana: The ballot measure will ask voters in November to approve the Born-Alive Infant Protection Act, which states all infants who are “born alive” are legal persons and have the right to medical care, including those born alive after attempted abortions.

Surprising Fact

The Michigan ballot initiative received the most signatures of any ballot measure in the state’s history, according to the ACLU of Michigan, one of the groups behind the effort. The state only requires 425,059 valid signatures for a measure to be approved. If approved, Michigan will be the only measure that made it to the ballot based on signatures, as the other measures all instead went through state legislatures.

What To Watch For

The Michigan Secretary of State’s office has until September 9 to determine whether the abortion rights measure will be on the ballot, a spokesperson told Bridge Michigan. If voters approve the amendment, it would nullify the state’s pre-Roe ban on abortion, which a court has blocked the state from enforcing now that Roe has been overturned, but not local prosecutors.

Tangent

Michigan voting rights advocates also submitted a qualifying number of signatures Monday for a ballot measure on rules governing elections. That measure, if approved, would let voters approve voting provisions like protecting the right to vote absentee, requiring ballot drop boxes, requiring nine days of early voting and prohibiting anyone except local and state officials from auditing election results.

Key Background

State abortion policies and what state constitutions say about reproductive rights have become heavily important in light of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, which left it up to states to set their abortion policies and set off a wave of bans on the procedure nationwide. Now that abortion bans can’t be challenged under federal law, abortion rights advocates have turned to state courts to make the case for abortion bans to be overturned, pointing to provisions in state constitutions that protect reproductive rights even if the U.S. Constitution doesn’t. That strategy has already been partially successful, as abortion bans in Utah, Louisiana, Kentucky and Texas were at least temporarily blocked in state courts as lawsuits against them moved forward, though judges later let Louisiana and Texas’ laws take effect. Four states already have constitutional amendments that explicitly state there are no protections for abortion, according to the pro-abortion rights Guttmacher Institute: Alabama, Louisiana, Tennessee and West Virginia. No states so far have constitutional amendments explicitly protecting abortion rights, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights—though New York is also moving forward with one—but state supreme courts in Alaska, Florida, Kansas, Minnesota and Montana have ruled that the states’ constitutions protect abortion rights.