Governor Gretchen Whitmer Is Fighting For Abortion Rights. Other Dems, Take Note
Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court on June 24, handing the question of abortion rights to each individual state. Already 11 states have passed laws making abortion illegal, and more are expected. Several of those laws have been blocked by lawsuits from places like the Center for Reproductive Rights and the ACLU, but it’s likely that abortion will go on to be illegal in many states, often without exceptions for incest or rape. And yet it feels like most pro-choice politicians just aren’t doing enough. Every leader who cares about human rights should be devoting themselves to this emergency.
Lawyers and activists and health care professionals and abortion clinic employees and abortion fund organizers are working overtime. Meanwhile Democrats who were elected on promises to defend reproductive rights keep talking about voting, as if the November election is much help to a person who is currently pregnant and unable to access abortion.
The same cannot be said of Gretchen Whitmer, the governor of Michigan. Her actions in response to Roe’s fall have had immediate effect. They also exemplify why people who care about abortion rights should focus on the 36 races for governor coming up in the 2022 election. Whitmer is up for reelection, and other strong pro-choice politicians including Stacey Abrams in Georgia and Katie Hobbs in Arizona are in races that are likely to be close. (Whitmer’s top-polling opponent is Ryan Kelley, who not only supports criminalizing abortion but was also arrested by the FBI this week in connection to the January 6 coup attempt.)
“I’m heartbroken. I feel like I’ve been punched in the gut,” Whitmer tells Glamour of the court’s decision. “As a sexual assault survivor, the thought that my state now is posed to revert to a law from 1931 that makes it a felony, no exceptions for rape, no exceptions for incest, that my daughters now have fewer rights than I’ve had my whole life—I’m furious, and that’s why I’m fighting like hell.”
https://www.glamour.com/story/gretchen-whitmer-is-fighting-for-abortion-rights-other-dems-take-note
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