LOCALIZATION: PROPOSAL 3

Whether you’re pro-life or pro-choice, Proposal 3 will finally put reproductive laws in the hands of Michigan voters on Nov. 8.

The upcoming midterm ballot will include Proposal 3, an initiative that would enshrine Michigan citizens’ right to abortion. After Roe v. Wade was overturned last June, Michigan had the potential to revert to a law dating to 1931, which made it a crime to perform an abortion unless the mother’s health was in danger. That law, however, was struck down.

Dr. Heather Shea, the director of Women*s Student Services at Michigan State University, said she feels “reasonably good” about the proposal passing after the 1931 law did not hold up in court. She also said other states with more conservative leanings passing similar proposals is a reason for her calculated optimism.

“When Kansas passed their constitutional amendment, I didn’t have any more concerns,” Shea said. “Kansas is a far redder state. I think that we’re in a pretty reasonable place.”

The question of whether the issue should even be up to a vote is another point of contention. Audrey Whipple, a junior at MSU studying human biology, serves as the president of Protect Life at MSU. She said abortion, unless to preserve the life of the mother, should be illegal and views Proposal 3 as far too radical.

“In an ideal world, I would hope that women are taken care of and have the resources they need,” Whipple said. “Abortion would be unthinkable. Pro-life or pro-choice, this is very, very extreme for the state of Michigan. It’s more extreme than Roe ever was.”

Patrick Arnold, MSU’s Center for Gender in Global Context academic specialist, also said the proposal is extreme, but only because the idea of voting on what is deemed essential health care shouldn’t be up for debate.

“I think the deeper issue here is the flimsy basis of our very rights themselves,” Arnold said.

“Our rights are at the whims of the population. We shouldn’t leave human rights up to a vote.”

If Proposal 3 doesn’t pass, reproductive options could look different for MSU students.

“If someone is forced to carry a pregnancy to term, that could drastically disrupt their academic pursuits,” Shea said. “People just think of it as abortion access, but I think that not having access to health care could hurt a student’s ability to continue being a student.”

Arnold said international and out-of-state students would no longer have access to abortion, nor would the university be able to support students’ access to one; whether faculty could aid a student in acquiring the procedure is also unclear.

Individuals on both ends of the spectrum are finding ways to engage in this almost 50-year debate.

Including her work at Protect Life at MSU, Whipple provides sidewalk counseling for individuals considering abortion. She said she’ll continue advocating for pro-life causes beyond college.

Shea and Arnold are part of a faculty committee working to protect the reproductive rights of MSU students and plan for contingencies such as the proposal’s rejection. They share concerns that certain rights, such as gay marriage and access to birth control, may be in jeopardy after Judge Clarence Thomas asked his U.S. Supreme Court colleagues to reconsider established rulings.

“There are some obvious next steps that have already been contested, such as access to birth control,” Arnold said. “There’s no right to access to birth control, so that’s put it in a position where some hospital administrators can deny it. It makes it easy to chip away and makes it even easier to invalidate.”

“This is a step toward repealing other protections that were put in place under the same laws,” Shea said.

Whether or not the initiative sees passage, Proposal 3 could change the landscape of reproductive freedom in the state of Michigan–and the stakes for both sides are just as high as when Roe v. Wade was settled in 1973.

“We’ve got to promote democratic engagement--regardless of what your perspectives are,” Shea said. “We need people to use their voices through democracy, get to the polls and actually vote.”

“A huge percentage of women that are seeking abortions are college students, young women,” Whipple said. “It’s definitely a huge conversation to be actively engaging in on campus. Even beyond that, I believe abortion negatively impacts women if it is legal. I think that women deserve better than abortion.”

Arnold counters that aside from its legality, abortion is an essential health care need.

“At the end of the day, it’s not about politics,” Arnold said. “It’s about people’s lives and survival. Regardless of whether abortion is legal, it will happen. It’s more a question of how safe we want it to be.”