LANSING, Mich. — Reproductive Freedom for All says democracy won Thursday when the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that the issue of abortion should be on the November ballot.
Loren Khogali, the executive director of the ACLU of Michigan, told FOX 17 that she let out a sigh of relief.
“This constitutional amendment is the most enduring way to protect reproductive freedom for people in Michigan and restore those rights under Roe,” Khogali explained.
The ACLU of Michigan introduced the ballot question alongside the state’s Planned Parenthood chapter and Michigan Voices.
The group’s attorney, Steve Lidel, explained that volunteers submitted more than 700,000 signatures needed to get abortion rights on the ballot, which is far more than the required minimum.
“The requirements for signatures were satisfied. We knew that there were no arguments. We had no one contesting a single signature. The only other question before the board was whether or not the petition complied with all of the requirements that the legislature has enacted for petition forms and clearly we had and the court agreed,” Lidel told FOX 17 Thursday.
Now, they hope the State Board of Canvassers does was the Michigan Supreme Court ordered it to do.
Lidel says that any member who goes against the high court’s verdict could face criminal charges, although he doesn’t believe that will happen.
“The members of the Board of Canvassers have taken a constitutional oath, a solemn oath, to execute their duties. They’ve been directly ordered by the highest court in Michigan, the Michigan Supreme Court, to place this question on the ballot and I expect that now they’ve been ordered to do their job, they will do their job,” Lidel added.
Meanwhile, Christen Pollo of Citizens to Support MI Women and Children released the following statement about the ruling:
“It falls to voters now to reject this mistake-ridden, extreme proposal on Election Day. We are confident that a majority will say ‘No’ to Proposal 3. It authorizes abortions up until the moment of birth, while sweeping away every law designed to impose common sense limits on abortions, such as parental consent and health and safety regulations on abortion clinics. This would become part of our constitution permanently and no matter how much it endangered the health and safety of our children, we’d be stuck with it. We urge voters to say ‘No’ on November 8.”
