Abortion Rights in Arizona, Kentucky, and the United States: A Moment of Rejoindness in California, Michigan, and Kentucky
Last year, months after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned decades of abortion rights precedent, abortion rights advocates were victorious in six states where abortion-related questions were on the ballot. In 2022, Hall noted, voters in blue states like California and Michigan largely shored up protections, while those in red states like Kansas and Kentucky rejected efforts to restrict the procedure.
The amendment’s passage is seen as a sign to voters in a red state that they passed abortion protections.
I think that Ohio is the first state where we can say, ‘We can win, and go on offense,'” Hall says. It is an inspiring example that shines a spotlight on the path for other red states.
The vote in Ohio followed a special election in August, when Republican lawmakers put a question on the ballot – also called Issue 1 – that would have made it more difficult to amend the state constitution. Ohio voters turned out in larger-than-expected numbers to reject that proposal.
Glenn Youngkin has supported a proposal to ban most abortions in the state after 15 weeks and has been campaigning with Republicans to win a government of his own.
As it is, Virginia is the only state in the South that has not restricted abortion in response to the Supreme Court decision last year. It is legal to have an abortion up to 26 weeks and 6 days of pregnancy. With incoming majorities in both chambers, that law seems poised to remain intact.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, won re-election after facing a challenge from the state’s Republican attorney general, Daniel Cameron, who opposes abortion rights and has defended Kentucky’s strict abortion laws in court.
Beshear’s campaign released an emotional ad in which a young woman talked about her experience as a victim of rape by a family member at age 12. She pointed out that Kentucky’s abortion law doesn’t allow for exceptions for rape and incest, meaning that anyone who believes in that shouldn’t know what it’s like.
Last year, in another likely sign that the state’s abortion laws are out of step with public opinion, Kentucky voters rejected a ballot initiative seen as unfriendly to abortion rights.
The incumbent Republican governor was re-elected in Mississippi. The Democratic challenger had a relative who opposed abortion rights.
According to a joint statement from Planned Parenthood of Michigan and the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, the Reproductive Health Act was watered down by Michigan Democrats and does not meet the needs of Michigan voters.
Democrats in the Michigan legislature introduced the Reproductive Health Act earlier this year, billing it as a way to put the lofty promises of Proposal 3 into practice. The legislation would have allowed Medicaid dollars to be spent on abortion care. There was a mandatory waiting period for abortion in Michigan that would have been removed under the RHA’s proposal. Health care professionals say it’s a process that results in patients being turned away from their own appointments.
“Basically, the House said to us last night, that if you are privileged enough to have private health insurance, your private health insurance can cover your health care or your abortion care,” Crissman said Thursday. If you’re a lower-income person or someone who’s on Medicaid, health care doesn’t matter as much, and you don’t have access to it. And so that’s really disappointing.”
Neither measure passed during the late night votes last week in the Michigan House. There is still a ban on Medicaid and a waiting period.
The Michigan abortion right movement hits its limit in the legislature: “In Michigan, #RestoreRoe” recalls the first cracks in Prop 3
“Saying it’s a mix of emotions is really underselling it,” said Democratic State Representative and Speaker Pro Tempore Laurie Pohutsky, one of the key sponsors of the legislation.
Medicaid coverage for abortions was dropped from Senate legislation in October. That was after an unknown number of Democrats had also been privately voicing their own concerns about Medicaid funding for abortion, Pohutsky said.
Pohutsky does not think we should sell ourselves short. “This is huge. The repeal of those policies is going to have a huge impact. That being said, all of that is irrelevant for someone who can’t access abortion care due to a 24 hour delay.
The first cracks in the Democrats’ plan emerged in September, when Democratic State Representative Karen Whitsett (Detroit/Dearborn) voted against the Reproductive Health Act in committee.
“Those are some very key things that I heard from constituents within the community,” Whitsett says. Don’t get me wrong. I voted yes for Prop 3. I am a survivor of rape. I was terminated. So I am in support of abortions and making sure that they’re safe and accessible.”
The Hyde Amendment, a federal law that passed in 1976, prohibits federal dollars from being used for abortion, except in cases of rape, incest or when a mother’s life is threatened. Some states allow their Medicaid programs to cover abortions.
Source: In Michigan, #RestoreRoe abortion rights movement hits its limit in the legislature
Reply to Pohutsky’s “Anomalous” Concerns about Medicaid Funding and Abortion Rights in the State House
“Unfortunately, House members had issues with Medicaid funding,” Pohutsky said at the time. “And again, I understand that that is disappointing. There’s no denying that. I think it’s unfair to say that this is one member who had an issue.
Pohutsky said there was a lot of outreach both to constituents and her fellow legislators to educate them on the proposed changes. “But ultimately, we weren’t able to get everyone on board.”
One strategy seems to have proven at least partly effective: separating abortion rights, which voters support, from “commonsense” abortion restrictions.
The Michigan Coalition to Protect a Woman’s Right to Know has over 10 statewide organizations that oppose abortion rights.
They claimed to have obtained polling results that show voters who supported Proposal 3 supported abortion restrictions. (Abortion advocates say the language used in that polling, however, distorted what the Reproductive Health Act would actually do.)
But some abortion providers, like Dr. Halley Crissman, said in effect the legislature had created two different tiers of abortion access: one for patients with private insurance, and another for those on Medicaid.
House Speaker Pro Tempore Laurie Pohutsky said she hopes abortion advocates outside the legislature will take up the fight next, by challenging the remaining abortion restrictions in court.