{"id":275400,"date":"2022-09-03T15:47:18","date_gmt":"2022-09-03T20:47:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=275400"},"modified":"2022-09-02T18:02:27","modified_gmt":"2022-09-02T23:02:27","slug":"constitutional-amendment-abortion-blocked-michigan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/constitutional-amendment-abortion-blocked-michigan\/","title":{"rendered":"Michigan Board of State Canvassers blocks certification of pro-abortion ballot initiative"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p>The Michigan Board of State Canvassers on Wednesday blocked an attempt to certify the Reproductive Freedom for All initiative to the November ballot in a tied vote of 2-2. According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2022\/08\/31\/politics\/michigan-abortion-ballot-proposal\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CNN<\/a>, the ballot was a citizen initiative aimed at enshrining abortion as a right in the state constitution.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are pleased that the Board of State Canvassers rejected the petition,&#8221; Thomas More Society Special Counsel Erick Kaardal said. \u201cThe real problem is the proposed Michigan amendment is being considered at the same time as the United States Supreme Court is considering the North Carolina re-districting appeal in\u00a0<i data-stringify-type=\"italic\">Moore v. Harper<\/i>. A North Carolina state legislative win will mean that state courts cannot invalidate state laws governing federal elections because it is a federally guaranteed prerogative of the state legislature. If so, Michigan\u2019s proposed constitutional amendment, empowering state courts to invalidate state laws governing federal elections, will clearly violate the federal constitution as interpreted by the United States Supreme Court.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Reproductive Freedom for All had submitted more than 750,000 signatures to the Secretary of State&#8217;s office in July and the Bureau of Elections estimated that just over 596,000 of those were valid signatures \u2014 about 146,000 more than were required. The amendment was challenged and during a public debate, the opposition argued that the amendment was too vague, poorly written, and full of errors. They asked for it to not be put on the November ballot.<\/p>\n<p>The board, however, has approved the language in the proposed amendment as it would appear on the ballot if it is certified. They also deemed it as Proposal 22-3.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ:<\/strong>\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/michigan-prosecutors-cannot-enforce-1931-law\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Michigan prosecutors cannot enforce 1931 pro-life law, judge rules<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In a final effort to include the constitutional amendment, Reproductive Freedom for All has now asked the state Supreme Court to order the Board of State Canvassers to certify the petition. The pro-abortion organization wants the decision to be made by September 7, which falls two days before the deadline to finalize the November ballot.<\/p>\n<p>If certified and passed, the amendment would establish an &#8220;individual right to reproductive freedom&#8221; including abortion, and would\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/ballotpedia.org\/Michigan_Right_to_Reproductive_Freedom_Initiative_(2022)\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">define<\/a> &#8220;reproductive freedom&#8221; as &#8220;the right to make and effectuate decisions about all matters relating to pregnancy, including but not limited to prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, contraception, sterilization, abortion care, miscarriage management, and infertility care.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It would prevent the state from protecting preborn humans prior to so-called fetal viability \u2014 which is defined not in terms of gestation, but is broad, arbitrary, and subjective, as abortionists have <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/planned-parenthood-abortionist-abortion-moral-valid\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">admitted<\/a>. There would be an exception to allow abortion after &#8220;viability&#8221; in order to protect the mother&#8217;s mental or physical health, though induced abortion (intentionally causing the death of a preborn child) is <em>not<\/em> medically necessary.<\/p>\n<p>Michigan did have a 1931 law on the books protecting preborn children from abortion. It could have gone into effect after the Supreme Court issued its decision in <em>Dobbs v. Jackson Women&#8217;s Health Organization<\/em> which overturned <em>Roe v. Wade<\/em>, but it was blocked by state courts.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveactionnewsonline\/\">\u201cLike\u201d Live Action News on Facebook<\/a> for more pro-life news and commentary!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveactionnewsonline\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u201cLike\u201d Live Action News on Facebook<\/a>\u00a0for more pro-life news and commentary!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Michigan Board of State Canvassers on Wednesday blocked an attempt to certify the Reproductive Freedom for All initiative to the November ballot in a tied vote of 2-2. According to CNN, the ballot was a citizen initiative aimed at enshrining abortion as a right in the state constitution. \u201cWe are pleased that the Board [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":218229,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[3473,11],"tags":[8119,760,18883,18140],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Michigan Board of State Canvassers blocks certification of pro-abortion ballot initiative<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Michigan Board of State Canvassers on Wednesday blocked an attempt to certify the Reproductive Freedom for All initiative to the November ballot.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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