A proposal to protect abortion rights in Michigan is back on the November ballot, thanks to the state’s Supreme Court.
The proposal would amend Michigan’s Constitution, codifying an array of reproductive rights that are currently in jeopardy thanks to this summer’s U.S. Supreme Court decision overruling Roe v. Wade.
With Roe no longer in force, states have the power to pass new laws prohibiting abortion or to enforce old bans that are still on the books. The latter is an especially real possibility in Michigan, where a 1931 law prohibits abortion at any stage of pregnancy and in almost all circumstances.
The law is not being enforced at the moment, thanks to several lower court rulings that prevent prosecutors from bringing cases. But abortion rights opponents have appealed those decisions.
The goal of the abortion rights amendment is to settle these questions once and for all, so that neither judges nor lawmakers could take away abortion access in Michigan. And that idea appears to have a great deal of support.
A Record Number Of Signatures, Plus A Few Typos
In July, organizers submitted petitions supporting the amendment with more than 750,000 signatures from across the state. That was nearly twice as many as necessary, and consistent with the strong support for abortion rights among Michiganders that recent polling has detected.
But opponents of the measure said those petitions were not valid, because of what was basically a series of typos: Spaces between some of the words were not readily visible, thanks to a glitch in the printing. This made the petitions incomprehensible, opponents claimed, and thus not valid as proof the amendment had enough support to qualify for the ballot.
Last week, that argument prevailed with the two Republicans who sit on Michigan’s four-person election board. The two Republicans voted against authorizing the amendment, producing a deadlock along party lines.
If that had been the final word, the amendment would not be on the November ballot.
But immediately after the elections board voted, the amendment’s supporters asked the state Supreme Court to intervene, arguing that the meaning of the amendment was clear even with the compressed words ― and that the elections board had no authority to block an initiative when it so clearly had enough public support.
On Thursday, the court agreed that the amendment’s meaning was clear, and ordered the election board to certify the amendment. The board next meets on Friday, which…
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