The Michigan Supreme Court has ordered that an abortion rights initiative appear on the November ballot.
Voters will determine whether to enshrine abortion rights in the Michigan Constitution, the state Supreme Court declared Thursday, settling the issue a day before the fall ballot must be completed.
Abortion rights would be guaranteed if the amendment passes Nov. 8. A 1931 state law makes it a crime to perform most abortions, but theThough appeals of that decision are likely, the law would be trumped if voters approve the amendment in the fall election.Democrats say the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe vs.
that would have allowed the Republican-controlled Legislature to tighten restrictions or ban abortion.In Michigan, a state elections board deadlocked along party lines Aug. 31 on whether the abortion initiative should appear on the ballot, with Republicans voting no and Democrats voting yes. The 2-2 tie meant that the measure wasn’t certified for the ballot.Voters rejected a measure that would have let GOP lawmakers restrict or outlaw abortion.
Supporters submitted more than 700,000 signatures, easily clearing the minimum threshold. But Republicans and abortion opponents argued that the petitions had improper or no spacing between certain words and were confusing to voters. “What a sad marker of the times,” Chief Justice Bridget McCormack said in a brief statement that accompanied the Supreme Court’s 5-2 order.Republican members of the Board of State Canvassers “would disenfranchise millions of Michiganders not because they believe the many thousands of Michiganders who signed the proposal were confused by it, but because they think they have identified a technicality that allows them to do so, a game of gotcha gone very bad,” McCormack said.
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