From the prolife perspective in Michigan, the election results aren’t great. Gretchen Whitmer won the race for governor. She is strongly in favor of abortion, ready to pour support into Planned Parenthood, halt prolife legislation, and to fight for forcing all insurance plans to pay for abortions. If possible, she would repeal the 1987 law stopping Medicaid-funded abortions, which has saved more than 230,000 Michigan lives.

Still, we cannot give up the fight. Voters returned prolife majorities to our State Legislature. Michigan has a unique citizen-initiated legislative process, which allows Michigan citizens to directly impact our state’s laws. If a legislative proposal receives enough valid signatures, the proposal is presented to the Michigan Legislature to adopt or reject without the governor’s signature. We the people still have an opportunity to advance legal protection for unborn children.

There’s a major hurdle to passing more prolife laws, however. Dana Nessel was elected to be our next attorney general. During her campaign, she said she would refuse to enforce prolife laws. As the top law enforcement office of the state, Nessel’s job is supposed to be enforcing the laws, which are legitimately passed by our elected officials or voted on directly by the voters. Instead, she seems to view her job as a crusade against those who disagree with her politically.

She also claimed she wants to shut down prolife pregnancy care centers. Attacking these nonprofit centers for the apparent crime of providing free help and resources to women and men in need is beyond the pale.

By a small margin, prolife veteran John James lost to Senator Debbie Stabenow. Among a long list of pro-abortion votes, Stabenow voted to keep partial-birth abortion legal, voted to force taxpayers to fund abortion, and voted against a ban against smuggling minor teens out-of-state for abortions behind their parents’ backs.

While prolife people may be discouraged by results at the top of the ticket in Michigan, we can’t give up. There’s a larger prolife majority in the U.S. Senate, which means President Trump can continue to nominate fair justices to the U.S. Supreme Court and lower courts. Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton are in even greater danger, meaning voters may once again soon see their role in deciding abortion policy restored to them.

We continue working towards a day when the right to life of every human being is once again respected and protected.

Chris Gast
Director of Communication/Education
cgast@rtl.org | 616-532-2300