I’m already fighting like hell to secure abortion rights here in Michigan, and if elected, I’ll be able to take the next step and sponsor a bill to codify Roe protections into Michigan law. Right now, I’m taking all the actions I can as a concerned -- outraged, really -- citizen.
I’ve donated to advocacy groups, signed the Reproductive Freedom for All petition, and attended rallies and demonstrations. On top of that, I’m using my platform as a candidate to take Reproductive Freedom for All petitions door-to-door as I canvass and I make sure they’re at my events, and I’m educating voters on the two lawsuits that would maintain abortion rights in Michigan should Roe fall next month; those lawsuits are still awaiting Michigan Supreme Court decisions. I will never stop fighting for our basic rights, and the fall of Roe portends potential backsliding on many other rights that we thought were secure: freedom to marry someone of another race or the same gender or freedom to use contraception.
Yesterday, the U.S. Senate failed to pass a bill to codify into federal law abortion rights that align with the protections guaranteed under the Roe v. Wade decision. We know these protections are likely to come down to state-level action, and here in Michigan, that means that as soon as the Supreme Court officially releases its decision, our 1931 law criminalizing all abortions (the only exception is an ill-defined one: “to preserve the life” of the pregnant person) will go into immediate effect. That means that someone who is pregnant today and needs an abortion in July could face criminal charges. This issue is personal to me, and abortion rights are crucial basic rights. If elected, I will fight to enshrine those rights into Michigan law.
You can take action by joining us here in Ann Arbor on Saturday for Planned Parenthood Advocates of Michigan’s rally on the U-M diag, or by joining as a petition circulator for the Reproductive Freedom for All campaign. We are never going back, Carrie Rheingans