Anti-abortion movement must find ways to adapt

Easier to change hearts, minds than constitutions

Voters have spoken. They want to preserve the right to abortion.

While poll after poll showed that concern over inflation and the economy was the No. 1 driver this election, in the states where abortion was literally on the ballot, abortion rights propelled voter participation.

In Michigan, one of five states with an abortion measure, the anti-abortion community is reeling from what it sees as a decadeslong setback in its work.

Michigan serves as a warning

Michigan voters approved the proposal guaranteeing a constitutional right to abortion by 56.7% to 43.3% – a wider margin than Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer earned over her Republican opponent Tudor Dixon.

The proposal is credited for helping give Democrats a statewide sweep, the first time they have full control over the legislature in 40 years.

Similar amendments passed easily in California and Vermont, where abortion is already well-protected in state law. Kentucky voters struck down an amendment that would have done the opposite – saying there is no right to abortion. And Montana voters declined to support a law that would have called for health care providers to do everything in their power to save a baby born alive, even after a botched abortion.

What made Michigan different, however, was the status of abortion in state law. After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, a long-dormant 1931 abortion ban resurfaced, criminalizing the procedure except in cases of protecting the mother’s life. While that law had not taken effect, given ongoing court battles, Michigan voters were presented with either this archaic framework – or the one offered in the constitutional amendment.

Abortion rights were a huge driver of voter participation among Democrats in Michigan, according to The Associated Press’ post-election VoteCast data, and Democrats were twice as likely as Republicans – 58% to 29% – to say the Supreme Court’s ruling had a major impact on their decision to vote.

Proponents of the amendment – led by Planned Parenthood and the ACLU – sold it as a way to preserve Roe in Michigan. This was false and misleading, as the proposal goes much further than that and is expected to unravel restrictions to abortion that had accompanied Roe, from parental consent for minor abortions to health and safety standards for abortion providers.

Lack of compromise backfires

Because it’s now embedded in the state constitution, the amendment will be difficult to change in the future.

Right to Life of Michigan and the Michigan Catholic Conference worked hard to fight the amendment and raised millions to combat it through advertising and other messaging. They couldn’t compete, though, with the amount of money that poured into the state from large Democratic donors around the country in support of abortion rights.

Whitmer, Michigan’s governor, also made fighting for abortion central to her reelection campaign. It turns out she hit on a winning strategy.

For months leading up to the Supreme Court decision, Whitmer had called on the Republican-controlled legislature to overturn the 1931 law. Their answer? Do nothing. This isn’t what voters wanted to see. GOP lawmakers refused to offer any compromise, including provisions for rape or incest or any gestational limit, such as the one Florida passed with its 15-week ban.

Faced with two extremes, voters chose the option they believed more closely resembled Roe.

Momentum shifts

Now, the Michigan anti-abortion movement is left wondering where to go from here. Changing policy will be next to impossible, so its best course of action is to double down on efforts to help women and the unborn.

As the cultural momentum sways to the side of at least some abortion rights, even among Republicans and people of faith, the movement for life should turn to changing hearts and minds.

Most Americans support some restrictions on abortion, especially later in pregnancy. But they also don’t want to live in a state where abortion is essentially outlawed.

It’s too late for Michigan now. But other states with Republican leadership should take note, and heed the warnings that doing nothing is not an option and could lead to even more abortion than there was during Roe.

That’s hardly a victory.