More than 600,000 voters have signed petitions supporting the Reproductive Freedom for All initiative, which would prohibit legislators from criminalizing or regulating abortions performed before fetal viability. If the Republican canvassers' objections to the proposed amendment stand, any statewide referendum on abortion rights would be postponed until at least 2024.
But nearly everyone — including the Republican canvassers themselves — expects state Supreme Court justices to sweep those objections aside and revive the pro-choice proposal before next Friday, the statutory deadline for finalizing the November election ballot. This isn't the first time Republicans have tried to scuttle a public referendum by raising technical objections, and the state's highest court has a long history of making sure voters' voices are heard.
Planned Parenthood of Michigan and two other groups spearheading the abortion rights amendment have already asked state Supreme Court justices to restore their proposal to the ballot. Justices will almost certainly do so late next week, either by ordering the State Board of Canvassers to certify the proposal or by directing Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson to include it on the ballots her office will transmit to county election clerks later this month. (Canvassers have already scheduled a meeting next Friday in anticipation of such a court order.)
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In the end, Michigan voters will decide in November what their state's policy toward abortion should look like going forward, and all the Republican canvassers who tried to derail the Reproductive Freedom amendment will have done is remind those voters (especially the female ones) how desperate the GOP is to muzzle them.
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Detroit Free Press
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And seeing how we turned the State Supreme Court blue in 2020, I think it's even more likely. And the Chief Justice is a woman.
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