Joint statement from ACLU of Michigan, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Michigan, Michigan Voices, Reproductive Freedom for All Michigan, Progress Michigan, Northland Family Planning Clinics, Mothers of Hope, APIA Vote-MI, Michigan United, Michigan Peoples’ Campaign, Michigan Student Power Alliance, Native Justice Coalition, Rising Voices, YWCA Kalamazoo, Equality Michigan, Michigan Coalition for Reproductive Liberation, Jews for a Secular Democracy, Michigan Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Network, Michigan Organization on Adolescent Sexual Health, Michigan Organization on Adolescent Sexual Health, Center for Change: a Northern Michigan Advocacy Group, LGBT Detroit, and Oakland Forward.
LANSING, MI – Advocates for abortion access in Michigan released the following statement following the Legislature’s final vote today in the passage of the Reproductive Health Act:
“The Michigan Legislature’s passage of the Reproductive Health Act comes one year after voters made it resoundingly clear through Proposal 3 that Michigan should protect and ensure access to abortion care. The Reproductive Health Act was another step to instilling those values and priorities in state law.
The legislation that passed today will help ensure continued access to safe, legal abortion in Michigan by preventing criminal punishment for miscarriages and stillbirths; removing medically unnecessary rules that shut down clinics; and allowing private insurance companies to include coverage for all pregnancy-related health care, including abortion.
Unfortunately, due to opposition from a single Democratic representative, the legislature was forced to remove key provisions of the bill, and the Reproductive Health Act fell short of its original goal.
While we applaud the legislature’s passage of elements of the Reproductive Health Act, Michiganders will still face barriers to accessing this care. Without eliminating a ban on Medicaid coverage and the 24-hour mandated delay, access to abortion care will remain out of reach for too many across our state.
These barriers make abortion care more difficult to access and often have an inequitable impact on Black and brown people, people working to make ends meet, rural residents, and other marginalized people. Our work to remove these barriers can and must continue unabated.
We are grateful to Senator Sarah Anthony and Representative Laurie Pohutsky for their leadership in sponsoring the Reproductive Health Act and the legislators who were dedicated to making the promise of Proposal 3 a reality. We also appreciate Governor Whitmer’s commitment to removing these and other barriers to abortion care in our state. As we mark this victory for abortion access in Michigan, we will continue to use all of our tools to ensure that Michiganders, whatever their zip code or income level, have access to the reproductive health care – including abortion care – that they need, and the freedom to control their bodies, lives, and futures.”
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