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Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in NY Times Op-Ed: “We Must Take Unprecedented Steps to Protect the Right to Choose”

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In a new guest essay for the New York Times, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer highlighted how she’s taking direct action to protect and expand reproductive rights in Michigan as the Supreme Court considers overturning Roe v. Wade and action has stalled in Congress.

“As a woman born and raised in Michigan,” wrote Gov. Whitmer, “I have a moral obligation to stand up for the rights of the nearly 2.2 million Michigan women who will lose their right to make decisions about their own bodies if Roe falls.”

Gov. Whitmer continued:I am not going to sit on my hands waiting for Congress to do something.”

That’s why Gov. Whitmer took unprecedented action, filing a lawsuit challenging Michigan’s 1931 abortion ban, which has no exceptions for rape or incest.

In addition to fighting for abortion access in Michigan, Gov. Whitmer has joined Democratic governors from 17 states in sending a letter urging Congress to protect reproductive health care access.

Gov. Whitmer also highlighted Democratic Govs. JB Pritzker, Phil Murphy, Jared Polis, Ned Lamont, and Gavin Newsom for protecting access to safe, legal abortion in their states.

“States are leading the way,” Gov. Whitmer wrote.

Read key excerpts from the guest essay below:

New York Times: Guest Essay: I’m a Pro-Choice Governor, and I’m Not Going to Sit on My Hands Waiting for Congress

[…]

I understand the frustration that many are feeling. I feel it too. Roe has been the law of the land for 49 years, nearly my entire lifetime. But it may not be the law of the land for my daughters. Many of us feared this day would come, which is why last month, I filed a lawsuit and, drawing on authority granted to me as governor, asked the Michigan Supreme Court to immediately resolve whether our state constitution includes the right to access abortion.

As a woman born and raised in Michigan, I have a moral obligation to stand up for the rights of the nearly 2.2 million Michigan women who will lose their right to make decisions about their own bodies if Roe falls. Michigan, like several other states, has a law criminalizing abortion that is still on the books. It was enacted in 1931 and would make our state home to one of the most extreme anti-choice policies in the country once this decision from the court is officially released. If Roe falls, abortion will become a felony in Michigan, without exceptions for rape or incest.

[…]

I hope that my novel lawsuit can offer a course of action for others to follow. I encourage my fellow pro-choice governors, state legislators, private sector leaders and citizens to use every available tool to protect access to safe, legal abortions. Given that Michigan has a Republican-controlled legislature,I am not optimistic that I — as a pro-choice Democratic governor — can get a bill passed to to overturn the 1931 Michigan law.

Those in states where abortion is already protected at the state level, and where it will remain accessible if Roe falls, may feel protected. There is, however, a very real danger that in a few short years, with complete control of the federal levers of power, anti-choice, anti-women extremists could enact a federal abortion ban, which could abolish abortion nationally, regardless of state law. This is not theoretical — it is their endgame.

At the national level, I joined with several of my fellow governors from across the country to urge Congress to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act. The bill, already passed by the House of Representatives, would put the protections offered by Roe into federal law. I implore senators to come together and get it done. But I am not going to sit on my hands waiting for Congress to do something.

A majority of the American people support safe, legal abortion and the protections offered by Roe. They do not want the Supreme Court or state lawmakers to strip away a fundamental right that women have had for almost half a century. Americans in every region of the nation, including in Michigan, trust women, not politicians, to make decisions about their own bodies. They also oppose punishing women for seeking abortions, and they oppose abortion bans that begin at six weeks, before most women even know that they are pregnant.

Whether through legislation, executive action, ballot initiative or civic engagement, the answer to the overtly political ruling of a supposedly apolitical, unelected body is to engage in every way and at every level. The answer is to get creative.

A handful of states protected access to abortion via ballot initiatives in the 1990s. In 2019, Illinois, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont codified access in their state laws. Massachusetts joined in December 2020, and New Jersey did in January 2022. Colorado did last month, and Connecticut did last week. In California, there are efforts underway to add access to safe, legal abortion to the state constitution. States are leading the way.

[…]

If we do not use every lever of power we have right now, or if we succumb to complacency, Americans will suffer and may die. Many will be out of sight, forgotten. Most will be poor. A sizable contingent will be women of color. We can all sense the hopelessness and despair that tens of millions of American women — our neighbors, family members and friends — are feeling. But despair is a choice, and pessimism is a luxury. We must take unprecedented steps to protect the right to choose.

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