While Michigan is more abortion-friendly than most of its Midwestern neighbors, like Indiana,whose near total abortion ban went into effect last month, reproductive justice advocates say the current standards for carrying out the law are not justifiable.
Though abortion is legal, other laws and policies in place in Michigan create barriers to abortion care that make it inconvenient, at best, for some folks to receive abortions and for clinics to provide them.
“A right isn’t really your right if it isn’t available and accessible to everyone in the state,” said Rep. Laurie Pohutsky.
Enter the Reproductive Health Act, a series of 11 bills aiming to broaden access to care that the state constitution says Michiganers are entitled to. With 54% of residents receiving abortions being Black women, and the Upper Peninsula coverage desert, this legislation would especially impact Black and rural communities, as well as folks traveling from states with abortion bans who may not be aware of Michigan’s laws.
With Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer expressing support and a slight Democratic majority, advocates are hopeful this third time will be the charm.
In the 2022 General Election Michiganers voted yes on Ballot Proposal 3, or Prop 3, amending the state’s constitution and enforcing reproductive freedom as a right.
Student organizations like Planned Parenthood Generation Action at Michigan State University (MSU), worked overtime to ensure their peers were educated on why the proposal mattered.
“We were canvassing and gathering signatures on campus as soon as we could get it in our hands… I think we were the first people to get trained for it,” said student secretary Mackenzie Lovell.
Nearly 23% of MSU’s Fall 2022 entering class were out-of-staters, many of whom were not yet registered to vote in Michigan. Lovell says the group “killed two birds with one stone,” helping students register and learn about Prop 3.
“The reason that we have the Reproductive Health Act is because Prop 3 was passed,” Lovell said. “Now we can go further. And examine where those barriers are and try to resolve them.”
Nearly 57% of voters supported Prop 3, according to the New York Times. While many considered this a win, Jaime Fitzgerald, founding member of the Michigan Coalition for Reproductive Liberation saw it as a warning.
“That doesn’t sound like a landslide to me, that sounds dangerously close,” Fitzgerald said, especially considering the fact that Michigan is considered a swing state.
Both Fitzgerald and Planned Parenthood Generation Action MSU say that they continue to combat the misconception that passing Prop 3 ended the fight for reproductive justice in the state.
“Truly a lot of people just are unaware that anything is still happening after Prop 3 got passed,” said Fitzgerald.
TRAP laws, or targeted regulation of abortion providers, are rules that some states make for places where people go for abortion or other reproductive care. They force reproductive care clinics to meet standards beyond what is necessary to perform safe abortions.
In Michigan this means abortion providing facilities are required to meet the standards of surgical centers, even though many of them do not perform surgery and only offer medication abortion.
Rep. Pohutsky says it’s important to note that these regulations are not enforced for health standards but rather to prevent people from getting abortions.
“These TRAP laws have always been medically unnecessary. They have not been about patient safety. They’ve not been about healthcare. They have been about limiting access to abortion, plain and simple,” she said.
The effects of these laws are especially heavy in rural areas. Abortion facilities in Michigan must be within 30 minutes of a hospital, according to the law, leaving many communities without an easily accessible option.
“We have a large swath of an abortion desert in Michigan. If you live in northern Michigan or up in the UP [Upper Peninsula], you may have to drive, you know, hundreds and hundreds of miles to access abortion care. And then when you get there, you may be told that you’d have to wait 24 hours because you didn’t fill out the right form,” explained Pohutsky.
Other TRAP regulations include a structural standard corridor width and specific sizing for procedure rooms. According to Guttmacher, only 9 states specify the size of procedure rooms and 8 states specify corridor width.
“We have laws on the books that already regulate and monitor all health care facilities. All this [the RHA] is doing is removing the ability for the state to assert its preference about abortion and force it onto patients,” she said.
Although only three of Planned Parenthood’s Michigan locations provide in-clinic abortion, all 14 of its brick-and-mortar clinics need to meet these standards to remain in operation.
“We don’t need an operating room to take medication,” said Rylee Warner, president of Planned Parenthood Generation Action MSU.
“These TRAP laws are making it so that people are still deadlocked and not being able to get an abortion even though it’s been enshrined as a right… So that begs the question, what is the definition of a right, if that’s what they’re trying to pass off to us as, something inalienable,” said Fitzgerald.
Minors in Michigan cannot receive abortion without the written consent of at least one parent or legal guardian.
While earlier versions of the RHA intended to repeal this requirement, this proved to be one of the more combatted parts of the legislation, said Rep. Pohutsky.
“When you are forcing minors to be parents, that’s a decision that they [the minor] should have some say in, and unfortunately that’s a controversial position to hold,” says Fitzgerald.
It was removed in the hopes of passing the act.
“We are seeking to try and get as much of this through as quickly as possible and around that parental consent piece we unfortunately just need a little bit more time to do some more education with folks, both legislators and frankly, some of our constituents too,” she said.
Parental consent requirements have been widely debated across the country, although the CDC reports that only about 8% of patients receiving abortions in the U.S. are minors..
“That’s a barrier and it’s a barrier that I very strongly think should be removed but with some people, with some more moderate Democrats, it may be a deal breaker,” Lovell told Reckon.
Illinois and Michigan are outliers on the map of the Midwest, with less restrictions than their neighbors. Harsh restrictions lead those living in places with abortion bans to travel to less restricted states to receive reproductive care.
According to Planned Parenthood of Michigan, abortion travel to their clinics tripled after Roe fell. Though 2023 data has not been released, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services reported 27,359 of the state’s 30,120 abortions performed last year were from local residents. “We’re seeing folks from other states that have abortion bans in place, come here and also face the same challenges,” said Pohutsky, referencing the 24-hour waiting period and Informed Consent Confirmation Form.
Many prospective patients aren’t aware of the waiting period requirement, which adds additional time and financial burdens that some simply cannot afford. Lovell points out taking time off of work, potential childcare, lodging expenses and travel arrangements as some of the things travelers have to consider.
“That’s money they’re losing possibly if they don’t get so many sick days off… and then when they get here and they realize they have to do that all again for another day because you have to wait that 24 hours, it just adds an unnecessary financial burden,” Lovell said.
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