Abortion rights backers easily clear the first step needed for a statewide vote on the issue this fall.
Boxes filled with petitions at the Michigan Bureau of Elections this morning. (Photo: Screenshot from Michigan Radio video)
Crain's Detreoit Business is among media reporting Lansing news:
Abortion rights advocates on Monday turned in a record 753,000 signatures for a ballot initiative to guarantee a constitutional right to abortion in Michigan. ...
Roughly 425,000 valid signatures are needed to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot.
The measure would declare a right to reproductive freedom. The government would be able to regulate abortions after fetal viability, which is around 23 or 24 weeks, if there were exceptions for the woman's health. It could not, however, prosecute or penalize women who get an abortion or doctors and others who assist them. ...
Supporters said the abortion measure is the first of its kind and a blueprint nationally. ... Anti-abortion advocates have criticized the new proposal as too broad, saying it would allow unregulated late-term abortions without legislative action.
A coalition pushing the amendment, Reproductive Rights for All, tweets: "Now we are even closer to codifying reproductive rights here in MI once and for all! Let this be an important sign to all that the Supreme Court will *never* have the last word on our reproductive freedom. As long as we can organize and mobilize, there will be legally protected abortion access in America."
This "will be one of the most closely watched ballot initiatives in the country," longtime state capital journalist David Eggert writes in Crain's.
Anti-abortion advocates have criticized the new proposal as too broad, saying it would allow unregulated late-term abortions without legislative action.
The ballot coalition -- led by Planned Parenthood Advocates of Michigan, the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan and Michigan Voices -- welcomed a surge of signature-gathering volunteers after the U.S. Supreme Court's decision overturning Roe v. Wade was leaked in May and released June 24.
"We should be the example as a state that the rest of the country can follow," state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, D-Royal Oak, told Axios Detroit last week. "My message to voters is you have the ability to take action yourself — Michigan isn't helpless."
The senior capital correspondent for Michigan Public Radio Network taped the delivery of petitions:
Ballot drive to enshrine abortion rights in MI Constitution drops off its petitions w MI Bureau of Elections pic.twitter.com/87xVncFX3x
— Rick Pluta (@rickpluta) July 11, 2022
